27 
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DESCRIPTIONS OF MAOAEA; 



SELECTED FROM 



VARIOUS TRAVELLERS; 



WITH ORIGINAL ADDITIONS, 



BY 



WILLIAM BAMAM. 



" One only objpct, fiUM eye, cm; and tlioiisht." Sotrrnnv's Majioc. 




GRAVESEND : 

PUBLISHED BY THE COMPILER, 6, ELIZABETH PLACE, 
TRAFALGAR ROAD, WROTHAM ROAD. 



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PKEFACE. 



The subject of this volume lias so long attracted 
the interest and excited the admiration of the lovers of 
nature, that a formal preface seems almost unnecessary. 
I shall simply state the principal reason wliich has 
urged me to publish this book. It is this ; that, although 
there are already before the public many descriptions of 
Niagara ; yet (so far as I am aware) there is no work 
in which are collected the various descriptions, sepa- 
rately published by those who liave visited this incom- 
parable Cataract. 

For the origiiuil suggestion of such a work, and 
indeed for many of the descriptions here presented, 



PREFACE. 



I am indebted to a friend., who, tliough lie has 
never visited the Falls, has collected a variety of" 
extracts from the different describers of Niagara. 
The same friend has kindly enriched my volume with 
some verses of his own, which, I think, will he much 
admired by my readers, and which form one of tlie 
principle articles in the conclusion of the ensuing- 
pages. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Directions to Travellers ...... 9 

Niagara Eiver, its Sources, and Islands ... 13 
Recollections of a Trip to the Falls of Niagara— By William 

Barham, Esq. 1-1 

The Rapids — Goat Island ...... 21 

Niagara — By Charles Dickens, Esq. ..... 26 

Description of Niagara — By Mrs. TroUope . . 28 

The Falls — Terrapin Bridge and Tower ... 32 

Biddle Staircase — -iEolus's Cave ..... 35 

Description of Niagara — By J. S. Buckingham, Esq. . 3S 

Uymn to Niagara ....... 41 

Niagara — By Tyrone Power, Esq. .... 46 

The Ferry — Canada Views — City of the Falls . . 51 

Niagara— By N. P. Willis, Esq 54 

Niagara — By James Stuart, Esq. .... 64 

Welland Canal — Brock's Monument — Burning Spring 68 

Niagara in Winter — By Mrs. Jameson .... 69 

Niagara — By Major Hamilton ..... 75 

Remarks on Niagara — By T. R. Preston, Esq. . . 82 

Remarks of Hennepin, Tonti, Hontan, &c. . . 86 

Table-Rock Staircase — Barnett's Museum . . 95 
Niagara — By Gr. Heriot, Esq. .... .96 

Summer and Winter Scenery — River below the Falls . 102 

Niagara — By Charles Joseph Latrobe .... 105 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Niagara — By Mrs. L. H. Sigoiiraey . . . . HI 

Curiosities — Mineral Spring, &(•. . . . . .118 

Fails of Niagara — From Ilowison's "Canada "' . . 119 

Whirlpool — Devil's Hole — Tuscarora Indians . . 123 
Niagara— liy Captain Basil Hall, E.N. . . .126 

Battles— Bridges — Places of Resort — Minerals, &c. . 140 

The Hermit of the Falls — By Mrs. Sigourney . . 142 
Extract from a Letter addressed to IMiss Carpenter of 

Bristol, England . . . . . . .151 

Incidents ......... 152 

Village of Niagara Falls — Number of A^isitors . . 157 

Niagara — By President Dwiglit .... 162 

Niagara — By the Duke de Liancourt . . . 163 

Niagara — By Rev. Andrew Reed . . . . 164 

Table of Distances 172 

Plan of Niagara River and parts adjacent . . . 173 

Address to the Niagara River — By Jose Maria Ilereclia 174 

Hymn on Niagara — By Thomas Grinfield . . .176 

The Genius of Niagara — By the Rev. John C. Lord . 177 

Farewell to Niagara — By Mrs. Sigourney . . .179 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



DIRECTIONS TO TRAVELLERS. 

In these days of rapid travelliug, wlien the most trifling 
delay is deemed a calamity, a few directions may be neces- 
sary, to enable you to save time, and view the various points 
of interest to the best advantage. At the same time we can 
not help deprecating the mania so prevalent at the present 
day, of making our excursions for pleasure, mere races against 
time. No person should come to Niaga,ra, for the first time, 
and leave the same day ; it is utterly impossible for one to 
conceive or realize its grandeur or beauty in such a visit — in 
fact one can hardly endure the bodily fatigue of simply climb- 
ing up and downthe various staircases, hills, rocks, &c., much 
less can the mind take in and appreciate the various objects 
of interest which necessarily present themselves in such quick 
succession, when endeavouring to see the whole of Niagara in 
a day. 

It is a common custom for visitors, on arriving at Niagara, 
to hasten, immediately upon alighting from their conveyance, 
to catch a first glimpse at the mighty cataract; and this 
view may in all probability be one of the least attractive — 
they feel disappointed — and wonder at the eulogium bestowed 
by other travellers, who have used more 'time and discretion ; 

jump into the first car that leaves, and praise the Falls, 

because every one else does, not because they have witnessed 
or appreciated its beauties themselves ! 



10 BESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Should you arrive on tlu- Ameiican side, j'ou will of course 
stop at one of the hotels, of which the principal are the 
Cataract Hotel, kept b}^ P. Whitney & Sons, and the Eagle 
Hotel, by C. B. Griffen & Co., both of which are excellent 
houses. After recovering in some measure from the fatigue 
of your journey, take the street to the right around either of 
the hotels, and proceed a few rods, to the bridge that leads 
across the rapids to Bath and Goat Islands; you will stop at 
the toll-house on Bath Island when jou pass over, record 
your name in the register, and \\^y twenty-five cents, -which 
entitles you to visit all the islands, with their appendages, as 
often as you please during your visit, or for the year, without 
any additional charge. And, if you choose to cross in a 
carriage, you pay no more. Proceed next to Goat Island, 
where you will find guide-boards directing you to all the most 
interesting places and objects around the island. Follow the 
gravel-walks at the right, down to the cascade or centre Fall, 
and cross a narrow bridge to Luna Island, from the farther 
corner of which 3'ou will have the best and most splendid 
views of the Falls on the American side. Eetracing your 
steps to the gravel-walk, proceed next to the Biddle Stair- 
case ; descend that without fail, as you will there have a mag- 
nificent and much admired view of the two entire Falls, 
standing between them, and an opportunity, if the wind be 
favourable, of passing a considerable distance behind either 
sheet, with the tremendous flood pouring over you from 
a lieight of 150 feet. From the foot of the staircase, turn 
first to the right and go to the Cave of the Winds, under the 
centre Fall, and in returning, follow the path to the great 
Crescent Fall. 

Reaching the top of the island again, proceed to the farther 
corner, where you will find the Stone Tower, forty-five feet 
high, with winding steps to the top, and also the Terrapin 
Bridge, from both which places you will have decidedly the 
best and most impressive views of the Falls, that can be had 
from any position. Here you will realize power, grandeur, 
sublimity, immensity, — no pen or tongue can describe it. 



DIRECTIONS TO TRAVELLERS. 11 

Pursuing your way with a view to go entirely round the 
island, — as you ought without fail to do, inasmuch as you will 
thus get a much better view of the rapids and surrounding 
scenery than can be obtained anywhere else, — you will pro- 
ceed up to a beautiful cascade, where, under the shelter in 
part of a projecting rock, you can have an opportunity to 
bathe in the sparkling foam of Niagara. 

" This is the purest exercise of health, 
The kind refresher of the summer heats." 

A rustic bridge was here, to give you access to the Moss 
islands, which are well worthy a visit. Just above these 
islands you have the very best view of the rapids, that is pre- 
sented from any place about the Falls. Proceeding round the 
head of the island, you cross the place nearly opposite the 
saw-mill, where a number of human skeletons have been dug 
up, — supposed to be the former site of an Indian burying 
ground. 

If your visit is protracted at the Falls, you should pass 
around and through Goat Island by the different paths in 
order to observe its picturesque beauty and realize its 
thousand attractions. You ought also, if time permit, to 
visit the site of old Fort Schlosser, the Mineral Spring, the 
Whirlpool, the Devil's Hole, &c., to all which places the coach 
drivers will conduct you, and give such information and direc- 
tions as you may need. 

In order to cross the river, proceed from the bridge to the 
staircase, near the edge of the Falls, at the foot of which you 
will have a very near view of the highest Fall and a most 
charming prospect of the entire falls. 

" Above, around, beneath, amazement all ! 
Terror and glory joined in their extremes ;" 

Take a look from the window of the staircase and you will 
realize the truth of Shakspere's description, — 

" How fearful 
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low ! 

I'll look no more. 
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight 
Topple down headlong.'' 

b2 



12 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

In crossing the river, not the least danger need be appre- 
hended ; it is a perfectly safe and most delightful excursion, 
and persons sometimes swim across without difficulty. The 
time occupied in crossing is ordinarily about eight minutes, 
and the ferriage is ]8| cents, from May to November; and 
25 cents from November to May. If you have trunks or 
other baggage to be transported from either side to the other, 
the ferr3-man will convey them safel^^, at a reasonable charge. 
The river is here 76 rods wide, and 250 feet deep. 

Having crossed the river, you proceed up the bank by a 
carriage-road, at the head of which stands the Clifton House: 
here you can refresh yourself, and. proceed towards the Table 
Rock ; about half way between the Hotel and Table Rock, 
stands the very interesting Museum of Mr. Barnett, which 
visitors should by no means fail to visit. This gentleman 
(Mr. Barnett) has spent years in the collection of his 
museum, and an examination of its contents will amply 
prove that the time has not been spent uselessly. Proceed 
from the museum to Table Rock, where you will find 
a spiral staircase, from the foot of which you can pass 153 
feet behind the sheet of water. This staircase is under the 
care of ]\Ir. Stark ey, who furnishes dresses and a guide for 
visitors who wish to go behind the sheet ; he also keeps a 
reading-room, and a neat and inviting shop of refreshments. 
An examination of the Albums in the establishment of Mr. 
Starkey, will be found amusing, as well as interesting. 

From Table Rock you have but one broad and imposing 
view of the whole Falls, and much of the scenery of the 
rapids and islands. It is generally conceded that this view', 
and that from the Terrapin Bridge, are the best, and combine 
more of the beautiful and sublime than can be obtained 
from any other point on either side of the river. 

In ascending the bank from Table Rock to the Hotels, you 
have a fine and extensive view of the surrounding country, 
and can visit Lundy's Lane, Brock's Monument, &c., as j^ou 
may have leisure or inclination. 

If you arrive first on the Canada side, proceed directly to 



NIAGARA RIVER, ITS SOURCES. 13 

Table Rock, aud when satisfied with viewing the amazing 
scene there, both from above aud below, and have visited all 
the other objects of interest, follow the path to the Ferry, cross 
to the other side, and then visit Goat Island, as directed 
above. 

To those who wish the services of a living guide in their 
rambles and excursions, Mr. S. Hooker, ou the American 
side, offers himself; his house is near the Eagle Hotel. From 
a residence of twenty-two years at the Falls, he is enabled to 
conduct visitors to all the objects of interest, in the vicinity, 
and to give them much valuable information. 



NIAGARA RIVER, ITS SOURCES, AND ISLANDS. 

Niagara river, upon which the Falls are situated, receives 
the water of all the upper lakes, as Erie, St. Clair, Huron, 
Michigan, Superior, aud a number of smaller ones. The 
most distant source of the Niagara is probably the river 
St, Louis, which rises 1,250 miles northwest of the Falls, 
aud 150 miles west of Lake Superior ; it is 1,200 feet above 
the level of the ocean, and falls 551 feet before it reaches 
the lake. 

Lake Superior is 459 miles long, by 100 wide, and 900 
feet deep : it is discharged into Lake Huron by the Strait 
St. Mary, 60 miles in length, making a descent of 45 feet. 
This lake receives the waters of about forty rivers. Lake 
Michigan is 300 miles by 50, and about 900 feet deep, and 
empties into Huron, through the Straits of Mackinac, 40 
miles in length. Connected with Michigan on the south- 
west side, is Green Bay, 100 miles in length by about 20 in 
width. Lake Huron is 218 miles by 180, and 900 feet deep, 
and is discharged into Lake Erie, through the rivers St. Clair 
and Detroit, 90 miles, making a descent of 31 feet. Lake 
Erie is 290 miles by 03, aud 120 feet deep, and 564 feet 



11 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

above the level of the sea. It empties itself through 
Niagara river, 35 miles in length, into Lake Ontario, making 
a descent of 334 feet, viz : From the lake to Schlosser, 

12 feet; thence down the rapids, 53 feet; the perpendicular 
falls, 164 feet; from the Falls to Lewiston, 104 feet; and 
thence to Lake Ontario, 2 feet. 

Lake Ontario is 180 miles, by 31, and 500 feet deep, and 
discharges itself through the river St. Lawrence, into the 
Atlantic Ocean, 710 miles distant. 

The four inland seas above the Falls — as the great lakes 
may properly be called — with the hundreds of rivers, great 
and small, that flow into them, cover a surface of 150,000 
square miles, and contain nearly half the fresh water on the 
surface of the globe. From these sources of the Niagara, 
some idea may be formed of the immense quantity of water, 
that is constantly pouring over the Falls. 

Niagara river, as it flows from Lake Erie, is about three- 
fonrths of a mile in width, and from twenty to forty feet 
deep ; for three miles it has a rapid current, and then it 
becomes calm and smooth till within one mile of the Falls. 

" So calm ; — the waters scarcely seem to stray, 
And yet they glide like happiness away." 

Five miles from the lake, the river begins to expand till 
it becomes more than eight miles in width, measured across 
Grand Island, and embraces, before it reaches the Falls, about 
forty islands. Of these the largest are Grand and Navy. Navy 
Island, belonging to Canada, contains 304 acres of good 
land, and terminates near Chippewa point. This island has 
acquired some notoriety in consequence of being the resort, 
during the winter of 1837-8, of a large body of men, 
lieaded hj William L. Mackenzie, Avhose object was a revo- 
lution in the government of Upper Canada. Batteries were 
erected upon the island, and considerable powder was burned 
in exchanging compliments between the island and Chip- 
pewa ; but as far as we have learned, but one man was ever 
killed on the island. It was finally evacuated some time in 



WHITE IIAVKN TIMBER COMPANY. la 

January^ 1838^ and has since remained quietly in the posses- 
sion of the British Government. 

Grand Island commences five miles from the lake, is 
twelve miles in length, measured around its edge, and from 
three to six in width, and terminates three miles above the 
Falls, containing 17,384 acres. The land is well timbered, 
rich, and productive. As the deepest channel of the river, 
forming the boundary line, runs on the west side, tliis island, 
until recently, belonged to the State of New-York ; but in 
the year 1833, a company from Boston purchased nearly the 
W'liole of the island, and have erected upon it, near the site 
of the famous Jewish city, Ararat, (projected in 18*25, by 
Major Noah, of New- York,) a steam grist-mill, and a saw^- 
mill, 150 feet square, containing 15 sets or gangs of saws. 
This mill is intended to furnish ship-stuff of every descrip- 
tion, from 20 to 70 feet in length, and is probably one of 
the most extensive establishments of its kind in America. 
The name of their village is " White Haven," situated nearly 
opposite Tonawanda, where the Erie Canal locks into the 
Niagara river. It is approached by a ferry across the river, 
here 100 rods wide, and has increased, since November 1833, 
from one solitary family to more than fifty ; it has also many 
workshops, a store, a school-house, a commodious wharf 
several hundred feet long, and a spacious dock made of 
piles, for storing and securing floating timber. 

In July, 1759, during the old French war, two large 
French vessels, in danger of being taken by the British, 
were burnt and sunk in what is called Burnt Ship Ba}^, near 
the lower end of this island. Some parts of them are still 
visible ; and some years since, a party of men, by raking the 
river at that place, secured many tons of iron. 

Among the other islands of the river, are Bird Island, 
between Bufli'alo and Fort Erie ; Squaw Island, containing 
131 acres, opposite Black Rock ; Strawberry Island, contain- 
ing about 100 acres ; Beaver Island, of 30 acres ; Rattle- 
snake Island, of 48 acres ; Tonawanda Island, on which 
s the beautiful mansion of Stephen White, Esq., contain- 



16 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

ing 69 acres; Cayuga Island, near the New York shore, 
four miles above the Falls, containing about 100 acres; 
Buck Horn Island, near the lower end of Grand and near 
Navy Islands, containing 145 acres; and a number of smaller 
islands, in and immediately above the rapids, besides Goat 
Island, &c., hereafter to be described. 

One feature in the Niagara river somewhat peculiar is, 
that neither the snows of winter, nor the evaporation of 
summer, neither rains nor drought, materially affect it ; its 
waters flow on, full and clear, perpetually the same ; except, 
as has long been observed, they have a small gradual rise 
and fall about once in seven years. The cause of this is 
unknown, but is undoubtedly to be sought in something 
affecting the upper lakes. Indeed, it has often been asserted 
by travellers, that the lakes have septennial fluxes and 
refluxes ; it is also asserted by some that they have small 
diurnal tides. This,, however, may reasonably be doubted. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF A TRIP TO THE FALLS OF NIAGARA IN 
SEPTEMBER, 1845. 

BY WILLIAM BARHAM. 

Though I confess that I have no great passion for travelling, 
still I believe myself to be one of those who do not mind 
putting themselves to a certain amount of trouble, incon- 
venience, and expense, in order to gain an object which they 
consider to be not only attainable, but desirable. For several 
years previous to my visit to America, I had cherished an in- 
creasing wish to behold some of the gigantic phenomena with 
which America abounds. Among these, the Falls of 
Niagara appeared an object of such peculiar interest, that 
as I was entirely disengaged at the time, I made up my mind 
to leave England by a ship bound for New York from 
London. In accordance with this resolution, I took a berth 
in the Victoria packet-ship. Captain Morgan : there were 



WILLIAM BARHAM. 17 

about thirty cabin passengers, and about one hundred 
steerage passengers ; and the crew consisted of about twenty- 
five men. On the 19th of August we cleared out of St. 
Catharine's Dock ; a steam-tug having got the end of one of 
our hawsers; the wind was very fresh at the time from 
the south-west, and we passed Gravesend at a good speed, 
and stopped a Kttle below for some passengers, who had great 
difficulty in getting on board. We reached the Nore ; then 
anchored for the night ; and arrived at Portsmouth on the 
23rd. Some of the passengers, with myself, went ashore, for 
a few hours. I here purchased a small stock of tobacco, 
which, although some of my readers may not admire, will be 
found by many a great resource in a long voyage. I certainly 
felt rather depressed in spirits on leaving Portsmouth, as 
I had never been far from England before. The Victoria is a 
remarkably fine ship, about 1,100 tons burden, and was very 
well manned. She cleared the Channel in the usual time, or in 
three or four days. Her powerful sails were soon propelling 
her over the waves of the broad Atlantic. There have been 
so many amusing accounts of voyages to New York that I 
shall not detain the reader in this waste of waters. Though 
I had been several coasting trips before, I had never had an 
opportunity of seeing the ocean lashed with fury by the 
angry tempest. To be brief, after a passage of thirty-five 
days from London, in which we encountered several gales of 
wind from the west, we arrived without accident at New 
York. 

I was not at all sorry to arrive at this fine city ; tired as 
we all were of the voyage. As we came oflF the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, we fell in with an English brig of about 500 tons : 
she had been beating about in the same gales which we had 
experienced ; but not being built of such good materials as 
our American ship, she had carried away all her principal 
sails ; and, when we got within about a mile of her, she sent 
her mate, with four men, in a boat, to borrow some twine of 
us to mend the sails; so that I felt convinced (let the sailors 
say what they would) that we had seen some rather boisterous 



18 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

weather. I was much charmed with the general appearance 
and situation of New York, which is uudeniably one of the 
finest cities in the world. The character of the streets and 
buildings resemble in some respects those of London ; while 
parts of the town put me in mind of Paris. I staid for two 
days at a private boarding-house, where the dinners, and the 
mode of serving them up, reminded me very strongly of the 
tables d'hote of the French : the style of dress too, though 
not peculiar, savoured of Parisian life. 

On the third, morning of my stay here, I rose, filled with 
visions of the mighty Falls, and embarked at about six o'clock 
in the morning, in a new river-boat called Niagara, more than 
300 feet long ! and most splendidly furnished. We proceeded 
up the river Hudson, at the rate of about fifteen miles an 
hour. I have never had an opportunity of witnessing the 
scenery of the Rhine; but my impression is that the Hudson 
from New^ York to Albany, 150 miles, is in no way inferior 
in beauty and variety. We reached Albany early in the 
evening. This town is the seat of government for the State 
of New Y'ork, but is very small compared with that city. 
The next evening I paid my fare by railway to Buffalo, 332 
miles. This is a single line nearly all the way, except at 
certain places, where it is double, so as to allow trains to pass 
each other. I arrived at Buffalo, a large to\Yn on lake Erie, 
the next night ; and having had a few hours' sleep, proceeded 
to the Falls by the Niagara and Buffalo railway. The train 
was drawn by an engine named after the Falls, which we 
reached in about an hour, the distance being twenty-five 
miles. On Saturday, then, at about ten o'clock, the 27th of 
September, I found myself in the village of Niagara, which 
is quite adjacent to the cataract, and was greeted by the 
thunder of its mighty waters. After leaving the train, I 
proceeded to the American Fall. There is a small balcony, 
built of timber, which projects over the commencement of 
Ihis Fall. It was here that I obtained my first glimpse of 
Niagara. I found that I had just sufficient nerve to venture 
to tiic end of this balconv, and then I cast my eyes into the 



WILLIAM BAKU AM. 19 

gulf below. I felt bewildered and astonished, and a slight 
feeling of desire to jump over the rail into the abyss below, 
came over my mind. A magnificent rainbow extended its 
brilliant hues from the top of the Fall, until they were 
intermingled M'ith the foam which always conceals its base. 
I was particularl}'^ fortunate in the day, which was fine and 
Avarm, the sun being only occasionally obscured by some 
passing clouds. Not far from this spot there is a cutting 
through the upper part of the cliff, by which means a railway 
at an angle of 45° has been constructed from the top of the 
cliff, right down to the beach below the Falls; this is in- 
tended for the conveyance of luggage belonging to those who 
wish to cross the river. There is a long flight of steps by the 
side of this railway, down which I descended ; and, clamber- 
ing over the rocks at the foot of the Fall, obtained a very 
imposing view from this position ; the amazing mass of deep- 
green waters, seeming to fall direct from the bright blue sky, 
which formed the lofty horizon. 

I then proceeded to cross the ferry, which to my surprise 
was almost close to the American Fall. A black rowed us 
over this sea of troubled waters in about eight minutes ; and 
after partaking of some refreshment, and a walk of half a 
mile, I stood on the Table Rock. The dream of years was 
realized ; the awful floods of eternity swept past me with an 
overwhelming force, that, augmenting the farther, they 
descended, seemed to set all calculation at defiance ; till, 
plunging into the abyss below with a fearful crash, they sent 
up far over my head an enormous volume of foam and mist, 
which if the wind is from the American shore, will drench 
you to the skin in a few seconds Some transatlantic mathe- 
maticians have calculated that the power of Niagara is 
twenty times greater than all the steam-engines of Great 
Britain, or sufficient to set in motion all the artificial 
machinery on the face of the globe ! 

I then descended by means of a spiral staircase, and stood 
below the Table Rock. This view is singularly awful and 
terrific ; and, combined with the recommendation of the 



20 DESCRIPTIONS Ol' NIAGARA. 

guide to enter the cavern which extends 180 feet behind the 
Fall, filled me with a degree of indescribable horror. I re- 
ascended to the Table Rock, and remained there for about 
two hours ; during which time the sun effectually dried my 
clothes. I soon after re-crossed the ferry, and then went to 
the St. Lawrence Hotel in the village. Having left my 
carpet-bag there, I crossed the bridge, reached Goat Island, 
wrote my name in a book kept for the purpose of receiving 
the names of visitors, and spent the afternoon in visiting the 
principal points of view from this romantic spot. The views 
from the craggy beach below Goat Island are peculiarly 
beautiful. I should recommend those who may visit this 
lovely island, to cross the Terrapin Bridge, and also to mount 
the tower at its extremity, which is about 45 feet high. I 
have heard of persons being disappointed with Niagara : to me 
it appears, that if bad taste may be considered a species 
of insanity, such persons ought to be regarded as maniacs. 

I spent the early part of the Sunday in viewing the whirl- 
pool, three miles below the Falls, whicli in point of real 
interest cannot be at all compared with Niagara. The same 
day I returned to Buffalo, and proceeded on to Boston ; which 
I reached on the first of October, only an hour before the 
Britannia mail-steamer slipped her cable. This fine vessel, 
commanded by Captain Hewitt, whose gentlemanly conduct 
seemed to give great satisfaction to all the passengers, had 
a narrow escape; as she nearly run on an iceberg about 200 
feet high. The absorption of caloric by a large iceberg may 
be perceived at half a mile distant, and on a dark night this 
increase of cold will give warning of danger : but guarded by 
a good Providence, she eventually arrived in safety a 
Liverpool. 

Gentle Reader ! fully impressed as I was during a stay of 
not more than thirty hours at Niagara with its surpassing gran- 
deur, I feel my own inability to convey in words a just idea 
of this the most stupendous cataract on the face of the globe. 
1 shall therefore borrow assistance from the best descriptions 
mIucIi I have been able to collect. 



THE RAPIDS. 21 



THE RAPIDS.— GOAT ISLAND. 



I MUST here apprize the reader, that it were vain to 
attempt a graphic description of the Falls and surrounding 
scenery ; for they so immeasurably exceed everything of the 
kind elsewhere seen or even imagined, that no power of lan- 
guage can give any adequate idea of them to those who have 
not been present to hear and see for themselves. ■ Captain 
Basil Hall remarks, " All parts of Niagara are on a scale 
which baffles every attempt of the imagination, and it were 
ridiculous therefore, to think of describing it ; the ordinary 
means of description, I mean analogy, and direct comparison, 
with things which are more accessible, fail entirely in the 
case of that amazing cataract, which is altogether unique." 

" All the pictures you may see," says J. J. Audubon, " all 
the descriptions you may read, of these mighty Falls, can only 
produce in your mind the faint glimmer of the glow-worm, 
compared with the overpowering glory of the meridian sun." 

Those scenes, which are sketched in the following pages, 
may be considered, therefore, only as a very faint outline, or 
shadow, of the reality. 

Below the termination of Grand and Navy Islands, the 
river is compressed to the width of two and a half miles ; and 
pressing forward with accelerated motion, it commences, 
about three-fourths of a mile above the Falls, a rapid descent 
making within that distance a slope or succession of chutes, 
amounting to fifty-two feet on the American side, and fifty- 
seven on the other. — The tremendous and beautiful rapids 
thus formed, constitute a very important part of the grand 
and unparalleled curiosities of this river. Were they in any 
other place, they would of themselves be considered as a 
scene of great beauty and sublimity, equalled only by the 
ocean when lashed into foam and fury by the angry tempest. 
Many visitors express themselves more delighted, and unex- 
pectedly filled with wonder, at seeing the rapids than the 
Falls themselves. 



23 DESCRIPTIONS OP NIAGARA. 

" Though spai-kling spray in thmidering clash, 
The lightning of the water flash, 
In awful whiteness o'er the shore, 
That shines and shakes beneath the roar." 

Two miles above tlie Falls, in approaching from Buffalo, you 
come in sight of the white-crested breakers, more than a mile 
in width, dashing, foaming, and tossing from ten to thirty- 
feet above the main current ; and at the same time hear a 
low, monotonous tremendous roar, and as you approach 
nearer, feel a tremulous motion of the earth. The distance 
at which this roar can be heard varies with the state of the 
atmosphere, ordinarily from five to twenty miles, though it 
is said to have been heard at Toronto, forty-five miles 
distant : and yet, in the village near the Falls it is scarcely 
heard at all. The mist, arising like curling smoke, and sepa- 
rating as it rises into masses of fantastic clouds, is seen at 
the distance of from three to twenty miles. This distance 
depends upon the state of the atmosphere, the height of the 
sun, and the force and direction of the wind. This mist 
sometimes rises in immense masses, and sometimes in a 
pyramidal shape to a very great height, and is an object of 
great curiosity, especially in the morning, soon after sunrise. 
It then sparkles like diamonds, and becomes illuminated 
with the most brilliant prismatic colours. 

" Niagara ! Niagara ! I hear 
Thy tumbling waters. And 1 see thee rear 
Thy thundering sceptre to the clouded skies ; 
I see it wave— I hear the ocean rise. 
And roll obedient to thy call. I hear 
The tempest-hymning of thy flood in fear ; 
The quaking mountains and the nodding trees — 
The reeling birds — and the careering breeze — 
The tottering hills, unsteadied in thy roar ; 
Niagara ! as thy dark waters pour. 
One everlasting earthquake rocks thy lofty shore." 

From Table Rock, you have an extensive and picturesque 
view of the rapids ; but they are seen to still better advan- 
tage from the bank of the river, half a mile above. They are 
also to be seen to very "great advantage from the different 



TABLE ROCK GOAT ISLAND. 23 

sides of Goat Island. Indeed, the great variety of views of 
the rapids to be obtained from the island, renders it the most 
eligible place for viewing them. From the south-west corner 
of this island, just above the Moss islands, you have by far 
the best view that can be taken from any place. There is, 
too, an amazing rush of water between the Moss islands, the 
force and sublimity of which may be conceived, but not 
described ; and no tourist or traveller, who desires to beiiold 
one of the most wild and fantastic scenes in the vicinity of 
the great Falls, should fail to visit this beautiful and inter- 
esting spot. 

Goat Island, is so called from the circumstance, that about 
the year 1770, Mr. Steadman, then resident at Schlosser, 
contrived by some means to put a few goats upon the island ; 
but its more appropriate and adopted name is Iris Island. It 
commences near the head of the rapids, almost in the middle 
of the river, and extends to the precipice, dividing the Falls 
into two sheets. It is half a mile in length, and one-fourth 
of a mile in width, and contains seventy-five acres of rich and 
heavy-timbered land. Situated in the midst of the rapids, 
aud surrounded by them on three sides, this island is one of 
the most beautiful, fascinating, and romantic places in the 
world ; it affords a delightful retreat for " the lunatic, the 
lover, and the poet," to indulge in their meditations. Fanned 
by gentle breezes, thickly and delightfully shaded, free from 
noisome insects, encircled by a neat walk, and presenting to 
the visitor a great variety of views of the Falls and rapids, he 
feels a reluctance on leaving it, and is wont to exclaim with 
Montgomery, 

" If God hath made this world so fair, 

Where sin and death abound ; 
How beautiful, beyond compare, 

Will Paradise be found !" 

Or with Eve, in the language of Milton, — 

" Must I leave thee, Paradise ? 
These happy walks and shades, 



Fit haunt of godsi?' 



24 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

About two-thirds of this island are still covered with tall trees, 
many of which are clothed with a magnificent drapery of ivy 
and other creeping plants, and many ha\ e beenkilledby reason 
of the countless names that have been cut into their bark. 
So strong is the desire of man for immortality, that few can 
resist the temptation to leave some memorial of their visit to 
the Falls. The earliest genuine date of any name yet found, 
is in the year 1769, though names have been cut within a few 
years, and dated back as early as 1745 ; but on the rocks 
near the Falls on the American side, there are names chiselled 
out and dated 1711, 1726, 1745, &c. On Goat Island, a 
number of human skeletons have, within a few years, been 
dug up ; supposed to be the remains of Indians buried in a 
former age, and many more are doubtless now resting there 
in undisturbed repose. There may they rest, in nature's 
solitude, till the Great Spirit calls them hence ! On this 
island is found a very great variety of wild plants, shrubs, and 
flowers ; nearly two hundred different species, some of them 
very rare, have already been discovered. Of the TiUum 
Grandiflora, sixteen varieties are found here. The seeds of 
plants and flowers, from the shores of all the upper lakes and 
rivers, have probably been washed upon this island. — Some 
j^ears since, a number of deer were put upon this island, 
which soon became quite tame; but visitors, in order to see 
them leap, Avould occasionally frighten them, when they would 
immediately betake themselves to the rapids, and thus were 
carried over the Falls, until all were finally destroyed. 

Judge Porter, the proprietor of the island, has had it in 
contemplation to lay out upon it a spacious garden, in which 
all the plants and fruits adapted to this genial climate, should 
be cultivated. When this and other projected improvements 
shall be completed, no other spot on this earth, perhaps, will 
present attractions equal to this celebrated and beautiful 
island. The approach to it is from the American side, by means 
of a bridge of the most difficult and hazardous construction, 
which extends from the shore, 28 rods, to Bath Island, and 
thence 16 rods further, to Goat Island. 



NIAGARA. 25 

There are many other beautiful islands situated among the 
rapids of this river, a number of which, as Bath, Ship, and 
Luna, are, and all the rest might be, connected with Goat 
Island by bridges, and afifbrd the most charming and impres- 
sive views of the surrounding scenery. On Bath Island, which 
is twenty-four rods in length, containing about two acres, is the 
Toll House, kept by Mr. A. B. Jacobs, who keeps an excellent 
house of refreshment, and has for sale one of the best collec- 
tions of Indian curiosities, geological specimens, walking- 
canes, &c. &c. which are to be found at the Falls. 

On this island is situated Porter's extensive Paper Mill, 
three stories high, where is manufactured yearly large 
quantities of paper.* 

Luna Island, about thirty yards in width, stands directly 
on the precipice near Goat Island, and divides the stream, a 
part of which forms the most splendid cascade, perhaps in the 
world. This is about twenty-two yards in width, and is 
sometimes called the " Centre Fall,^' to distinguishing it from 
the other two main sheets. Approaching this island from the 
foot of what is called, from the shape of the path, the " Hog's 
Back,'^ visitors have, from the north-west corner, a much 
better view of the American Fall than can be obtained from 
any other place. This Fall, like the other, has evidently 
changed its shape within a few years, and has now nearly as 
much of a resemblance to a horse-shoe as the other. 

There are ten other islands in the rapids besides those 
above mentioned, containing perhaps from one-fourth to an 
acre each, to all which bridges might, probably, be con- 
structed. 

* The paper composing the Guide Book which I purchased on Goat Island 
was manufactured here. 



20 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA 



NIAGARA.— BY CHARLES DICKENS. 
(From his American Notes.) 

Between five and six in the morning we arrived at Buffalo, 
where we breakfasted ; and being too near the Grand Falls 
to wait patiently anywhere else, we set off by the train the 
same morning ; it was a miserable day ; chilly and raw ; a 
damp mist falling ; and the trees in that northern region 
quite bare and wintry. 

Whenever the train halted, I listened for the roar ; and was 
constantly straining my eyes in the direction where I knew 
the Falls must be, from seeing the river rolling onwards 
towards them ; every moment expecting to behold the spray. 
Within a few minutes of our stopping, not before, I saw two 
great white clouds rising up slowly and majestically from the 
depths of the earth. That was all. At length Ave alighted ; 
and, then for the first time I heard the mighty rush of water, 
and felt the ground tremble underneath my feet. 

The bank is very steep, and was slippery with rain, and 
half melted ice. I hardly know how I got down, but I was 
soon at the bottom, and climbing, with two English officers 
who were crossing and had joined me, over some broken 
rocks, deafened by the noise, half-blinded by the spray, and 
wet to the skin. We were at the foot of the American Fall. 
I could see an immense torrent of water tearing headlong 
down from some great height, but had no idea of shape, or 
situation, or anything but vague immensity. 

We were seated in the little ferry-boat, and were crossing 
the swollen river immediately before both cataracts. I began 
to feel what it was ; but I was in a manner stunned, and 
unable to comprehend the vastness of the scene. It was not 
until I came on Table Rock, and looked — Great Heaven, on 
what a fall of bright green water ! — that it came upon me in 
its full might and majesty. 



CHARLES DICKENS. 27 

Then wlien I felt how near to my Creator I was 
standing_, the first efifeet, and the enduring one — instant and 
lasting — of the tremendous spectacle, was — Peace, Peace of 
Mind : Tranquillity : Calm recollections of the dead : Great 
Thoughts of Eternal Rest and Happiness : nothing of Gloom 
or Terror. Niagara was at once stamped upon my heart, an 
Image of Beauty ; to remain there, changeless and indelible, 
until its pulses cease to beat for ever. 

Oh, how the strife and trouble of our daily life receded 
from my view, and lessened in the distance, during the ten 
memorable days we passed on that Enchanted Ground ! 

What voices spoke from out the thundering water ; what 
faces, faded from the earth, looked out upon me from its 
gleaming depths ; what heavenly promise glistened in those 
angels' tears, the drops of many hues, that showered around, 
and twined themselves about the gorgeous arches which the 
changing rainbows made ! 

I never stirred in all that time from the Canadian side, 
whither I had gone at first. I never crossed the river again ; 
for I knew there were people on the other shore, and in such 
a place it is natural to shun strange company. To wander to 
and fro all day, and see the cataracts from all points of view : 
to stand upon the edge of the Great Horse-Shoe Fall, mark- 
ing the hurried water gathering strength as it approached the 
verge, yet seeming, too, to pause before it shot into the gulf 
below ; to gaze from the river's level up at the torrent as it 
came streaming down ; to climb the neighbouring heights 
and watch it through the trees, and see the wreathing water 
in the rapids hurrying on to take its fearful plunge ; to linger 
in the shadow of the solemn rocks three miles below ; watch- 
ing the river, as, stirred by no visible cause, it heaved and 
eddied and awoke the echoes, being troubled yet, far down 
the surface by its giant leap ; to have Niagara before me, 
lighted by the sun and by the moon, and in the day's decline, 
and gray as evening slowly fell upon it ; to look upon it every 
day, and Avake up in the night, and hear its ceaseless voice ! 
This was enough. 

c 2 



28 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

I think, in every quiet season now, still do those waters roll 
and leap, and roar and tumble, all day long; — still are the 
rainbows spanning them, a hundred feet below ; — still when 
the sun is on thera do the}^ shine and glow like molten gold; 
— still when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow, or seem 
to crumble away like the front of a great chalk-cliflF, or roll 
down the rock like dense white smoke. But alwaj's does the 
mighty stream appear to die as it comes down, and always 
from its unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of 
spray and mist which is never laid; which has haunted this 
place with the same dread solemnity since darkness brooded 
over the deep, and that first flood, before the deluge, — Light, 
came rushing on Creation at the word of God. 



MRS. TROLLOP E. 

(From her Domestic Manners of the Americans, in 1830.) 

At length w'e reached Niagara. It was the brightest day 
that June could give ; and almost any day woiild have seemed 
bright that brought me to the object which for years I had 
languished to look upon. We did not hear the sound of the 
Falls till very near the hotel which overhangs them : as you 
enter the door, you see behind the hall an open space, sur- 
rounded by galleries, one above another, and in an instant 
you feel that from thence the wonder is visible. I trembled 
like a fool, and my girls clung to me, trembling too I believe, 
but with faces beaming with delight. We encountered a 
waiter who had a sympathy in some sort with us ; for he 
would not let us run through the first gallery, but ushered us 
up stairs, and another instant placed us, where, at one glance, 
I saw all I had wished for, hoped for, dreamed of. It is not 
for me to attempt a description of Niagara ; I feel I have no 
power for it. 

After one long steadfast gaze, we quitted the gallery, 
that we uiight approach still nearer, and in leaving the 



MRS. TROLLOPE. 29 

house liad the good fortune to meet an Eiighsh gentleman,* 
who had been introduced to us at New York ; he had 
preceded us but a few days, and knew exactly how and where 
to lead us. If any man living can describe the scene we 
looked upon, it is himself, and I trust he will do it. As for 
myself, I can only say, that wonder, terror, and delight com- 
pletely overwhelmed me. I wept with a strange mixture of 
pleasure and of pain, and certainly was for some time too 
violently affected in the physique to be capable of much 
pleasure ; but when this emotion of the senses subsided, and 
I had recovered some degree of composure, my enjoyment 
was very great indeed. To say that I was not disappointed, 
is but a weak expression to convey the surprise and astonish- 
ment which this long-dreamed-of scene produced. It has to 
me something beyond its vastness; there is a shadowy 
mystery hangs about it, which neither the eye nor even the 
imagination can penetrate ; but I dare not dwell on this, it is 
a dangerous subject, and any attempt to describe the sen- 
sations produced must lead direct to nonsense. 

Exactly at the Fall, it is the Fall and nothing else you have 
to look upon ; there are not, as at Trenton, mighty rocks and 
towering forests. There is only the waterfall; but it is the 
fall of an ocean ; and were Pelion piled on Ossa, on either 
side of it, we could not look at them. 

The noise is greatly less than I expected ; one can hear 
with perfect distinctness everything said in an ordinary tone, 
when quite close to the cataract. The cause of this I imagine 
to be that it does not fall immediately among rocks, like the 
far noisier Potomac, but direct and unbroken, save by its 
own rebound. The colour of the water before this rebound 
hides it in foam and mist, is of the brightest and most delicate 
green ; the violence of the impulse sends it far over the pre- 
cipice before it falls, and the effect of the ever-varying light, 
through its transparency is, I think, the loveliest thing I ever 
looked upon. 

We descended to the edge of the gulf which receives the 

* The acconiplislied author of " Cyril Thornton." 



30 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

torrent, and thence looked at the Horse- Shoe Fall in profile; 
it seems like awful daring to stand beside it, and raise one's 
eyes to its immensity. I think the point most utterly incon- 
ceivable to those who have not seen it, is the centre of the 
Horse- Shoe. The force of the torrent converges there ; and 
as the heavy mass pours in, twisted, wreathed, and curled 
together, it gives an idea of irresistible power, such as no 
other object ever conveyed to me. The following anecdote, 
which I had from good authority, may give some notion of 
this mighty power. 

After the last American war, three of our ships, stationed 
on Lake Erie, were declared unfit for service, and condemned. 
Some of their officers obtained permission to send them over 
Niagara Falls. The first was torn to shivers by the rapids, 
and went over in fragments ; the second filled with water 
before she reached the Fall; but the third, which was in 
better condition, took the leap gallantly, and retained her 
form till it was hid in the cloud of mist below. A reward of 
ten dollars was offered for the largest fragment of wood that 
could be found from either wreck, five for the second, and so 
on. One morsel only was ever seen, and that about a foot 
in length ; it was marked as by a vice, and its edges notched 
like the teeth of a saw. What had become of the immense 
quantity of wood which had been precipitated ? What 
imknown whirlpool had ingulfed, so that, contrary to the very 
laws of nature, no vestige of the floating material could find 
its way to the surface? 

Beyond the Horse-Shoe is Goat Island, and beyond Goat 
Island the American Fall, bold straight , and chafed to 
snowy whiteness by tne rocKS wnicn meet it : but it does not 
approach in sublimity or awful beauty, to the wondrous 
crescent on the other shore. There, the form of the mighty 
caldron, into which the deluge pours, the hundred silvery 
torrents congregated round its verge, the smooth and solemn 
movement with which it rolls its massive volume over the 
rock, the liquid emerald of its long-unbroken waters, the fan- 
tastic wreaths which spring to meet it, and then the shadowy 



MRS. TROLLOPE. 31 

mist that veils the horrors of its crash below, constitute a 
scene almost too enormous in its features /or man to look 
upon. " Angels might tremble as they gazed/^ and I should 
deem the nerves obtuse, rather than strong, which did not 
quail at first sight of this stupendous cataract. After break- 
fast we crossed to the American side, and explored Goat 
Island. The passage across the Niagara, directly in face of 
the Falls, is one of the most delightful little voyages imagin- 
able ; the boat crosses marvellously near them, and within 
reach of a light shower of spray. Real safety and apparent 
danger have each their share in the pleasure felt. The river 
is here two hundred feet deep. The passage up the rock 
brings you close upon the American cataract j it is a vast 
sheet, and has all the sublimity which height, and width, and 
uproar can give ; but it has none of the magic of its rival 
about it. Goat Island has, at all points, a fine view of the 
rapids ; the furious velocity with which they rush onwards to 
the abyss is terrific; and the throwing a bridge across them 
was a work of noble daring. 

Below the Falls, the river runs between lofty rocks, crowned 
with unbroken forests; this scene forms a striking contrast 
to the level shores above the cataract. It appears as if the 
level of the river had been broken up by some volcanic force. 
The Niagara flows out of Lake Erie, a broad, deep river; but 
for several miles its com'se is tranquil, and its shores perfectly 
level. 

By degrees its bed begins to sink, and the glassy smooth- 
ness is disturbed by a slight ripple. The inverted trees, that 
before lay so softly upon its bosom, become twisted and 
tortured till they lose their form, and seem madly to mix in 
the tumult that destroys them. The current becomes more 
rapid at every step, till rock after rock has chafed the stream 
to fury ; making the green, one white. This lasts for a mile, 
and then down sink the rocks at once, one hundred and fifty 
feet, and the enormous flood falls after them, God said, let 
there be a cataract, and it was so. How utterly futile must 



32 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

be every attempt to describe the spot ! How vain every effort 
to convey an id^a of the sensations it produces ! Why is it 
so exquisite a pleasure to stand for hours drenched in spray, 
stunned by the ceaseless roar, trembling from the concussion 
that strikes the very rock you cling too, and breathing pain- 
fully in the moist atmophere that seems to have less of air 
than water in it ? Yet pleasure it is, and I almost think the 
greatest I ever enjoyed. We more than once approached the 
entrance to the appalling cavern behind the Horse-Shoe Fall; 
but I never fairly entered it, though two or three of my party 
did. I lost my breath entirely; and the pain at my chest 
was so severe, that not all my curiosity could enable me to 
endure it. 

What was that Cavern of the Winds, of which we heard of 
old, compared to this ? A mightier spirit than iEolus reigns 
here. 

It was a sort of pang to take what we knew must be our 
last look at Niagara ; but " we had to do it " as the Americans 
say, and left it on the 10th of June for Buffalo. 



THE FALLS— TERRAPIN BRIDGE AND TOWER. 

The broad river, as it comes thundering and foaming down 
the declivity of the rapids, at length leaps the cataract, three- 
fourths of a mile in width, and falls, as it were, to the central 
caves of the earth. The mind, filled with amazement, recoils 
at the spectacle, and loses for a moment its equilibrium. The 
trembling of the earth, the mighty rush and conflict, and 
deafening roar of the water, the clouds of mist sparkling with 
rainbows, produce an effect upon the beholder, often quite 
overpowering; and it is only after the scene has become 
somewhat familiar to the eye, the ear, and the imagination, 
that its real grandeur and sublimity is properly realized and 
felt. 



TERRAPIN BRIDGE AND TOWER. 33 

" To sit on rocks, to muse on flood and field, 
To slowly trace tlte forest's shady scene, 
Where things tliat own not man's dominion dwell, 
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been. 
« • « 

Alone o'er steps and foaming falls to lean : 
This is not solitude ; 'tis but to hold 
Converse with nature's charms, and see her stores unrolled." 

The water on the American side, as ascertained by frequent 
measurement, falls 164 feet, and on the Canada side, 158 
feet. The Fall on the Canada side, embracing much the 
largest channel of the river, is called, from the shape of the 
precipice, the " Crescent, or Horse Shoe Fall,'^ and near to 
this a bridge, called the Terrapin Bridge, has been constructed, 
300 feet in length, from Goat Island, and projecting ten feet 
over the Falls, Near the termination of this bridge, in the 
water, and on the very verge of the precipice, a stone tower, 
forty-five feet high, with winding steps to the top, was erected 
in the year 1833, from which, or from the end of the bridge, 
the effect of the Falls upon the beholder is most awfully sub- 
lime, and utterly indescribable. The sublime arising from 
obscurity, is here experienced in its greatest force. The eye, 
unable to discover the bottom of the Falls, or even to pene- 
trate the mist that seems to hang as a veil over the amazing 
and terrific scene, gives place to the imagination, and the 
mind is instinctively elevated and filled with majestic dread. 
Here is 

" All that expands, yet appals." 

" And such was that rainbow, that beautiful one. 
Whose arch was refraction, its keystone — the sun ; 
A pavilion it seemed with a Deity graced, 
And justice and mercy met there and embraced." 

The solar and lunar bows, the river above and beloAV, and 
indeed the whole scenery of the Falls and rapids, appear to 
better advantage from this point than from any other ; and no 
visitor on either side should presume to leave the Falls with- 
out visiting the tower and bridge. From the top of the 
tower especially, he will realize the force and beautv of the 



34 DESCRIPTIONS OP NIAGARA. 

following description, which, with the change of a single 
word, applies admirably to this matchless scene : 

" The roav of waters ! From the headlong height 
Niagara cleaves the wave-worn precipice ; 
The fall of waters rapid as the light, 
Tlie flashing mass foams, shaking the abyss ; 
The hell of waters ! where they howl and hiss, 
And boil in endless torture; while the sweat 
Of their great agony, wrung out from this 
Their Phlegetlion, curls round the rocks of jet 
That gird the gulf around, in pitiless hoiTor set. 

And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again 
Returns in an unceasing shower, which round 
With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain 
Is an etei'nal April to the ground. 
Making it all one emerald ; — how profound 
The gulf! — and how the giant element 
From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound. 
Crushing the cliffs, which downward worn and rent, 

With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent. 

» ' « * » 

* * * Look back ! 

Lo ! where it comes like an eternity, 
As if to sweep down all things in its track, 
Charming the eye with dread, — a matchless cataract, 
Horribly beautiful ! but on the verge. 
From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, 
An Iris sits, amid the infernal surge. 
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn 
It steady dies, while all around is torn 
By the distracted waters, bears serene 
Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn, 
Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene, 
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien." Byron. 

The lunar bow, seen at night, in the time of full moon, 
appears like a brightly illuminated arch, reaching from side 
to side, and is an object of great attraction, — especially as the 
world presents but few other places where such a bow is ever 
seen, 

" Hung on the cui-ling mist, the moonlight bow 
Arches the perilous river. " 

Goat Island, in a moonlight night, is the resort of great 



LUNAR BOW ROMANTIC INCIDENT. 35 

multitudes^ and is a scene of unrivalled beauty and mag- 
nificence. The rapids at such a time sparkle with phosphoric 
splendour, and nature around wears an irresistible charm of 
loveliness. There is 

" A silver light, which hallowing tree and tower, 
Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole." 

The writer once had the pleasure of joining a lovely couple 
in marriage, about eleven o'clock on one of the brightest 
nights he has ever known, in full vicAV of this enchanting 
scene, and then of taking a romantic excursion with the 
party around the island. This was poetry indeed ; it was one 
of those bright and verdant oases sometimes met with in the 
journey of life. 



BTDDLE STAIRCASE.— iEOLUS' CAVE. 

At the lower end of Goat Island, about one-third across it, a 
staircase, erected in the year 1829, at the expense of 
Nicholas Biddle, Esq., of Philadelphia, gives visitors an 
opportunity of descending below the bank, and of passing a 
considerable distance behind the two main sheets of water. 
The descent from the top of the island to the margin of the 
river, is 185 feet. A common flight of steps leads down 40 
feet, to the perpendicular spiral steps, 90 in number, which 
are enclosed in a building in the shape of a hexagon, resting 
on a firm foundation at the bottom. From the foot of the 
building, there are three paths leading to the most important 
points of observation, one of which leads to the river below, 
80 feet, Avhere visitors will find one of the finest fishing-places 
in this part of the world. All the varieties of fish existing in 
Lake Ontario, are found here, among which are sturgeon, 
pike, pickerel, black and white bass, herring, cat-fish, 
eels, &c. Here was Sam Patch's jumping place. The path 
at the left of the staircase leads to the great Crescent Fall, 



36 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

where, when the wind blows np the liver, a safe and dehghtfui 
passage is opened behind the sheet of water. 

The path to the right leads to a magnificent Cave, appro- 
priately named when it was first discovered, twenty-seven 
years since, iEolus' Cave, or Cave of the Winds. This cave 
is about 120 feet across, 50 feet wide, and 100 feet high ; 
it is situated directly behind the Centre Fall, which at the 
bottom is more than 100 feet wide, and, were the rocks exca- 
vated a little and a few steps made, visitors could safely pass 
into and entirely througli the cave, behind the sheet of water. 
Beyond this cave, at the foot of Luna Island, there is an open 
space, where persons may amuse themselves at leisure upon 
the rocks over which the floods are pouring, and then venture 
in as far as they please behind the whole American Fall. 

The writer of these pages first conceived the idea of effect- 
ing an entrance into tliis cave, July 14, 1834, while passing 
in front of the American Fall in a boat, and the next day it 
was effected, for the first time, by Messrs. Berry, H. White, 
and George Sims, both residents at the Falls, who passed 
round the outside of the Falls, and landed at the foot of 
Luna Island. Accompanying the above idea, was a project 
of passing behind tlie whole American Fall, fifty rods, and 
coming out near the ferry. This passage, though not yet 
effected, is believed to be possible ; for the opening between the 
sheet of water as it falls, and the rock behind, is from fifteen 
to fifty feet wide, and there are rocks to walk upon through the 
whole distance. If there be any insurmountable obstacle, it 
will probably be found in the tremendous wand and spray 
occasioned by the falling flood. A passage into the cave was 
at first considered a great exploit, but a passage behind the 
whole sheet would be inconceivably greater. The cave itself, 
is the ne plus ultra of w^onders ; a visit to which, no person of 
svifiicient nerve, ought to omit. Ladies and gentlemen can 
very often, when the wind blows down the river, pass a con- 
siderable distance behind the sheet of water within the cave, 
without getting Avet at all. The view presented to a person 
while in the cave, in connexion with the tremendous and 



EXTRACT FROM BRAINARD. 37 

astounding roar of waters, which, owing to the echoes or rever- 
berations, is apparently a hundred times greater here than 
anywhere else, will enable him to appreciate the following 
beautiful and graphic lines of Brainard, — especially as there 
is always, in the afternoon, when the sun shines, a very bright 
rainbow visible directly within the cave, and behind the sheet 
of water. 

" The thoughts are strange that crowd into nij' brain, 
While I look upwards to thee. It would seem 
As if God poured thee from his hollow hand, 
And hung his bow upon thy awful front, 
And spoke in that loud voice, which seemed to him 
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, 
' The sound of many waters ;' and had bade 
Thy flood to chronicle the ages back, 
And notch His centuries in the eternal rocks. 

Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we, 
That hear the question of that voice sublime ? 
Oh ! what are the notes that ever rung 
From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side ? 
Yea, what is all the riot man can make 
In his short life, to thy unceasing roar ? 
And yet, bold babbler, what are thou to Him 
Who drowned a world, and heaped the waters far 
Above its loveliest mountains ? — a light wave, 
That breaks, and whispers of its Maker's might.'' 

How little and insignificant do the efforts of man appear, 
when measured by this exhibition of Omnipotence ! The 
earthquake, the volcano, the wide-spread conflagration, the 
shock of contending armies, are sublime and terrific spec- 
tacles, though short in their continuance and limited in their 
effects ; but here, ever since the Flood, probably, the deafening 
and incessant roar of the mightiest cataract on the globe has 
called upon the children of men to fall down and adore their 
Maker. 



38 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



BUCKINGHAM. 
(From his Ti'avels in the Eastern and Western States, in 1837.) 

On the morning of Wednesday, the 22d of July, we 
embarked in the steamer Cincinnati, for Chippewa and the 
Niagara Falls. Leaving the harbour of Buffalo at eleven 
o'clock, we soon entered the Niagara Strait, by which the 
waters of Lake Erie are discharged into Ontario. At two 
o'clock we reached Chippewa, on the Canada side, where we 
landed, as it is dangerous for vessels to go nearer the Falls 
than this, a distance of about two miles, lest they should be 
drawn, by the powerful current setting downwards, into the 
rapids, and thus carried over the cataract, which happens to 
small boats, sometimes with people in them, almost every 
year. 

From Chippewa we took a carriage, to convey us to the 
Clifton Hotel, a distance of about three miles ; and in our 
way there, over the high grounds that overlook the Strait, we 
had a fine view of the turbulent rapids, spreading over a 
space of more than a mile in length, and nearly a mile in 
breadth, covered with breakers, such as are only seen on 
a rocky sea-shore, in the most violent gales, and the foaming 
water hurrying along at the rate of eight or ten miles an 
hour. Soon after this we came to a point from whence the 
whole force of the impetuous torrent could be seen just 
curling over the edge of the Horse-Shoe Fall, and thence 
descending in one vast volume into the deep abyss below. 
From this point of view, the Fall seemed grander to our eyes 
than at ovoc first visit to it ; and our second impressions were 
certainly more powerful than the first. Every step that we 
made only increased the grandeur and beauty of the scene. 
From the brow of the hill over which we were passing, and 
near to which the Pavilion Hotel formerly stood, (the burnt 
fragment of the building still remaining, to tell travellers of 



BUCKINGHAM'S TRAVELS. 39 

its recent destruction by fire^) the whole view of the Valley 
of Niagara was at once enchanting and sublime. The earth 
looked clothed in fresher verdure than we had seen it in 
before ; the recent rains having brightened all the grass and 
foliage of the surrounding country. The undulations of hill 
and dale appeared more graceful. There were many more 
and prettier villa - residences and gardens than we had 
remarked in our former visit. The water seemed in greater 
volumes^ and the rush of the rapids, the foam of the cataract, 
the rising clouds of mist from its feet, and the roar of its 
thunder, seemed to us all on a grander scale than ever. We 
lingered to enjoy this unequalled landscape ; full of the most 
sublime and awful grandeur near, and as full of the softest 
and loveliest beauty, which every combination of hill and 
valley, forest and lawn, rock and verdure, cataract, lake, and 
river, that the most enchanting scenes of the picturesque 
could demand — a landscape that leaves all others on this con- 
tinent that we had yet beheld, far in the shade, and that 
cannot be surpassed, I think, in grandeur or in beauty, 
throughout the world. 

We reached the Clifton Hotel at three o'clock, and devoted 
the whole of the remaining day till dark night, to perambu- 
lating and re-enjoying, with new and increased delight, the 
endless charms of the Falls. In our former visit here, we 
had examined every remarkable spot, and every favourable 
point of view, and the result of the whole of my investigations 
and impressions were embodied in the description of Niagara, 
drawn up at that time ;* but our feelings were, we thought, 
more powerfully affected now, than on that occasion, though 
we then considered them to be as deeply impressed as 
possible ; and if we before wondered at persons coming here, 
staying for a short period, and then going away disappointed, 
it now seemed plain to us that the reason of this was to be 
found in the shortness of their stay ; and that a second visit, 
or a third if necessary, might have brought out a feeling of 
admiration and delight, which a first visit was insufficient to 

* See " America," First Series, vol. ii. p. 498. 



40 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

kindle into life. We passed the greater part of the evening 
on Table Rock^ which overhangs the deep basin into which 
the Horse- Shoe Fall descends on the Canada side, when you 
may stand within a few feet of the very edge of the 
cataract, see its ceaseless torrent bending in one continuous 
stream of the richest emerald green, streaked Avith flakes of 
the purest snow, and descending in a resistless mass to the 
boiling abyss, whose depth is hidden by the clouds of mist 
rising upwards, as the everlasting incense of the waters, 
ascending before an altar or a throne. For myself, I can 
truly say that I felt sensations of the deepest awe, mingled 
with an exquisite glow of the most intense pleasure, and a 
charm, amounting almost to infatuation, which fixed me 
immovably to the spot. Neither the showers of the rising 
spray, nor the deafening roar of " the many waters," seemed 
to have any other effect than to make it the more difficult to 
tear one's self away ; and the longer I remained, the more 
strongly I felt disposed to continue to gaze on in silence, as if 
entering on an eternity of pleasure. Then, too, the feeling that 
this mighty Cataract had been rushing and roaring for 
thousands of years without intermission ; and that it M^ould 
flow on in the same continuous and unabated impetuosity for 
thousands of years yet to come, exalts the whole subject into 
one of inexpressible sublimity. True, it is as a tear-drop, 
compared to the vastness of the ocean ; and the ocean itself 
is insignificant compared with the whole mass of the globe ; 
the globe as a speck, compared with the great luminary of 
the sun ; the sun a mere point, compared with the planetary 
system of Avhich it is the centre ; and the whole system an 
almost unappreciable atom, when compared with the boundless 
universe, diff'used through that illimitable space, which, like 
the infinite Creator of all, knows neither beginning nor 
end ! 

How humble, then, are we, who stand thus overwhelmed 
and overawed by such an inconsiderable fragment of the 
great whole as this, before which we seem but as dust in the 
balance? Yet, at the same time, "how fearfullv and wonder- 



BUCKINGHAM'S TRAVELS. 41 

fully are we made/' when, amidst all this grandeur, of which 
the human iutellect and the immortal spirit form so impor- 
tant a part, we seem blind to the dignity with which we are 
invested — as the living, feeling, thinking, reflecting, reasoning, 
and hoping inhabitants and possessors of such a world as our 
domain ! Instead of trying to fill it with the moral blessings 
of mutual love, mutual instruction, and mutual peace — we 
honour war, the very breath of whose nostrils is hatred and 
revenge; we pay homage to ignorance, if it be robed in 
wealth; and we elevate to the highest pinnacles of earthly 
glory, those whose lives have been remote from the "paths 
of peace," whose distinction lies in the number of battles 
they have fought, and the number of the slaughtered dead 
they have left upon the battle-field ! With these and a 
thousand other kindred thoughts and feelings passing through 
my mind and heart, I sat and gazed upon Niagara for hours; 
and yet they passed away so rapidly, that I was almost 
unconscious of their speed. We read again the lines written 
on the spot two years ago, and found no occasion to abate any 
expression of the intense admiration which such a scene 
cannot fail to inspire. 

HYMN TO NIAGARA. 

(Written at the first sij^ht of its magnificent Falls, August, 1838.) 

Hail! Sovereign of the World of Floods, whose majesty and might, 
First dazzles — then enraptures — then o'erawes the aching sight : 
The pomp of kings and emperors, in every clime and zone, 
Grows dim before the splendour of thy glorious watery throne. 

No flesh can stop thy progress, no armies bid thee stay ; 

But onward— onward — onward— tliy march still holds its way 

The rising mist that veils thee as thine herald goes before, 

And the music that proclaims thee is the thundei'ing cataracts' roar. 

Thy diadem is an emerald green, of the clearest, purest hue, 
Set round M'ith waves of snow-white foam, and spray of feathery dew ; 
White tresses of the brightest pearls float o'er thine ample sheet, 
And the rainbow lays. its gorgeous gems in tribute at thy feet. 

D 



42 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Thy reign is of the ancient days, thy sceptre from on high, 
Thy birth was when the morning stars togetlier sang witli joy : 
The sun, the moon, and all the orbs that shine upon thee now. 
Saw the first wreath of glory that enthron'd thy infant brow. 

And from that hour to this, in which I gaze upon thy stream. 
From ago to age — in winter's frost, or summer's sultry beam — 
By day, by night — without a pause — thy wave, with loud acclaim, 
In ceaseless sounds, have still proclaimed the Great Eternal's name. 

For whether on thy forest banks, the Indian of the wood, 
Or since his days, the Red Man's foe, on his father-land have stood — 
Whoe'er has seen thine incense rise, or heard thy toirent roar, 
Must have bent before the God of All ! to worship and adore. 

Accept then, O Supremrly Great ! — Infinite 1—0 God 1 

Fi'om this primeval altar — the green and virgin sod — 

The humble homage that my soul in gi'atitude would pay 

To Thee ! whose shield has guarded me through all my wandering way. 

For if the Ocean be as nought in the hollow of thy hand. 

And the Stars of the bright firmament, in thy balance grains of sand, 

If Niagara's rolling flood seem great to us who lowly bow — 

O ! Great Creator of the Whole ! how passing great art Thou ! 

Yot though Thy Power is greater than the finite mind can scan, 
Still greater is thy Mercy — shown to weak dependent man. 
For him Thou clothed the fertile field with herb, and fruit, and seed, 
For him, the woods, the lakes, the seas, supply his hourly need. 

Around — on high — or far — or near — the Universal Whole 
Proclaims Thy glory, as the orbs in their fixed courses roll ; 
And from Creation's grateful voice, the hymn ascends above. 
While heaven re-echoes back to earth, the chorus, " God is Love." 

It was with difficulty and reluctance that I tore myself 
away at last from the spot ; and as all the way of our return 
was in sight of the magnificent Cataract, and the thunder of 
its fall was heard incessantly, and even felt by the tremulation 
of the floors, the windows, and slightly of the bed on which 
we lay, it was hardly to be wondered at that I should dream 
intensely of what had so powerfully impressed me during my 
waking hours ; and that the view of its falling masses, and 



BUCKINGHAM'S TRAVELS. 4>3 

the sound of its rushing torrents, should be as distinctly 
before my sight, and within my hearing, " in the visions of 
the night, when deep sleep cometh upon man," as they were 
during the day, when every faculty of my mind and heart was 
absorbed in the most profound and silent admiration. 

The succeeding morning opened with rain, the only aspect 
under which we had not seen the Falls ; and though it con- 
fined us to the hotel during the early part of the day, we were 
enabled to continue our excursions in the evening, and had 
not therefore much cause for regret. One efifect of the rain 
was to produce a much greater appearance of mist rising from 
the bottom of the Fall, the column or cloud exceeding soine- 
times 100 feet above its ordinary line of height. Another 
effect, produced by the strong west wind that blew, was to 
accelerate the speed of the current above the Falls, and conse- 
quently to send a much larger volume of water over both. 
We were assured, by those who constantly reside here, that 
an easterly wind keeps back the current, and a westerly one 
accelerates it, to a degree sufficient to make a difference of 
from 20 to 30 feet in the elevation of the surface in the 
Strait below. This we could readily believe from the 
increased fury of the rapids above, whose waves were much 
more lofty, and their foam a more continuous and unbroken 
white than yesterday, while the mass of waters rolling over 
the upper edge of the Falls, seemed to leap farther out from 
the rock, and plunge with greater force into the stream 
below, from which, by this increased impetus of descent, and 
the general moisture of the upper atmosphere combined, the 
mist rose in clouds so thick, as sometimes to veil the surface 
of the Cataract, and then become gradually transparent like 
a thin sheet of the finest muslin. At intervals when the sun 
shone out, the rainbows at the feet of both the Falls were 
splendid, sometimes stationary, arched, and of the most vivid 
and clearly-defined colours ; at others, )>resenting a sort of 
rainbow clouds, where bodies of mist would have all the pris- 
matic rays marked on them, but in a floating and undulating 
series of curves, advancing and receding, so as to form a 

D 2 



44 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA . 

wavy line, in perpetual motion, as if some colossal serpent 
of the mist was straining to ascend perpendicularly over the 
cliff; and waving the folds of his body in that undulating 
motion called serpentine, reflecting the prismatic rays from 
every part as it moved ; it was altogether an unusual and 
most brilliant sight, and an ample compensation for the rainy 
morning in which it was seen. 

In the evening as we sat in the balcony of the Clifton 
Hotel, enjoying the grandeur of both the Falls, amidst the 
obscurity of an unusally dark night, the white masses of each 
being just visible, with bright scintillations at one moment, 
and then the softened haze of the rising mist at another, 
several rockets and other fireworks were let off on the 
American side, which, for a moment, illumined the darkness, 
and as the fragments of the exploded rockets descended M'ith 
their brilliant stars into the very centre of the Cataracts, the 
effect was strikingly beautiful. 

The longer I gazed upon this sublime scene, the more 
powerfully I felt the force of that fascination which bound 
me like a spell to the spot ; and I could readily believe that a 
few hours of silent and uninterrupted feeling, like this, would 
occasion such a high degree of nervous excitement, as to 
induce the wish to plunge into the stream, and be floated 
over on its gorgeous billows. I remember no other sight in 
the world that ever wrought upon my imagination or my feel- 
ings half so powerfully as this, and we were rather glad that 
we had made our arrangements for returning to the other 
side by noon, so that we were forced to leave sooner than we 
should otherwise have done, a scene which will never be 
obliterated from my memory. 

"Colonel Wliittlesey, in a geological survey of the "Western 
Reserve of Ohio, or south shore of Lake Erie, states, that the 
whole of that region forms, to the south, a vast undulating 
table-land 500 feet high, which, as it approaches to a line 
within five miles of the lake, breaks off by a sudden precipice 
parallel with the lake, and forming without doubt, what was 
once the southern shore of the extended basin of the lake. 



Buckingham's travels. 45 

This ridge, we liave no question, is continuous witli a precisely 
similar formation observed on Niagara river, at Queenstown, 
and Lewiston, where the table-land, on either side level with 
Lake Erie above, abruptly falls some 300 feet, and is 
traceable from Lewiston, on tlie American side, for more than 
one hundred miles parallel with, and from five to ten miles 
from, the shore of Lake Ontario. We have no question that 
this ridge, known in our state as the beautiful natural turn- 
pike, called the Ridge Road, could be traced to the head of 
the St. Lawrence, at the Thousand Isles, or commencement 
of the rapids — perhaps more probably, to the Heights of 
Abraham and Falls of Montmorency. At this latter, and soon 
up to the Thousand Isles above, some mighty rupture of the 
rocky beds beneath seems to have occurred by a convulsion of 
nature, and thus furnished a passage or drain for the Upper 
Lakes, into the Atlantic. Hence the reception of the Avaters 
of Ontario, which, until then, were continuous with Erie, 
and extended over the whole level region of the North 
Canada shore. 

" The time when this convulsionoccurred, must have been 
simultaneous with the production of the Falls of Niagara, 
wliich until then were a part of the shores of the two lakes, 
which here silently commingled their Avaters, until the 
sudden rupture and draining below, threw the momentum of 
the mighty flood from the now table-land, and then lake- 
bed, at Queenstown, down the high precipice or naked shore, 
and thus excavated for themselves the deep channel of 
Niagara River from this point to the diminished basin of 
Ontario — leaving the mighty wonder behind, for the admira- 
tion of the world. From Queenstown, the Falls in course of 
time, by gradually, as they now hourly do, breaking off the 
soft shelving or calcareous rock, worked their way naturally up 
to their present position, seven miles above, and will ulti- 
mately penetrate into Lake Erie, when another draining will 
take place of Erie, Huron, and Michigan — both which latter 
are also doubtless diminished basins — up to the Sault St. 
Marie, or Low Falls, which divides these lower lakes from the 



46 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

great inland sea of Lake Superior. When that event occurs, 
another Niagara will in the same way be formed at this 
passage into Lake Superior. And so the mighty work will 
proceed, until oui' lakes, which none of them have great 
rivers of their own to supply the present constant draining 
by the St. Lawrence, and by evaporation, will shrink to 
minor pools, leaving, ultimately, their rich beds bare, to 
become the seats of civilization, and of a vast population. 

" These reflections might be extended to the more ancient 
period designated by Dr. Mitchell, when the lakes were all 
one continuous vast sea, bounded on the south-east by the 
chain of the Alleghannies, and through which the first great 
ruptures into the Atlantic, and the first draiuings. Mere made 
by the passages excavated through the mountain-chain at 
various places, the Highlands of the Hudson, the Gap of the 
Delaware, the Blue Ridge at the junction of the Shenandoah 
with the Potomac, the passage of the Tenessee through the 
Cumberland mountains, &c." 



NIAGARA.— BY TYRONE POWER, ESQ.* 1836. 
(From his "Impressions of America.") 

I FELT interested with Buffalo, and had promised myself 
much pleasure from a visit to the country occupied by a 
branch of the Seneca tribes in its neighbourhood; but 
Niagara was now within a few hours — the great object of the 
journey was almost in sight. I was for ever fancying that I 
lieard the sound of the " Thunder Water "f booming on the 
breeze ; so, with a restlessness and anxiety not to be sur- 
passed, I got into the coach on the day after my arrival at 
the capital of the lakes, and was in a short time set down on 
the bank of the swift river Niagara, at the ferry, which is 

* The celebrated delineator of Irish Characters ; and who was unfortunately 
lost in the ship President, on her return voyage from America. 
t The Indian name " Niagara " signifies Thunder- VTater. 



TYRONE POWER. 47 

some four miles from Buffalo. We found the little rapids 
about the shore occupied by fishers of all ages, who required 
but a small share of the patience which is deemed so essential 
to the followers of this melancholy sport, for they were pull- 
ing the simple wretches out as fast as the lines could be 
baited and offered. 

The shipment was quickly effected, and in a few minutes 
our faces were turned from the dominion of the States. The 
vessel was a large horse-boat; that is, a flat propelled by 
paddle-wheels similar to those of a steam-boat, only wrought 
by horse-power — an animal-treadmill in fact. 

On the larboard gangway of our flat the American jack 
floated, and over the starboard side waved the Union flag of 
Old England ; they fluttered proudly side by side, a worthy 
brotherhood, and so united may they long be found ! The 
ride along the Canada shore was very fine, the noble stream 
being constantly in sight. 

We halted to water the team at a public-house that stands 
upon the ground where was fought the battle of Chippewa, 
which, as the Yankees say, " eventuated just no-how." 

From this house the eternal mist caused by the great Fall 
may be plainly seen curling like a vast body of light smoke, 
and shooting occasionally in spiral columns high above the 
tree-tops ; but not a sound told of its neighbourhood, though 
we were not five miles distant from it, and the day was calm 
and clear. At about three miles from this, as the vehicle 
slowly ascended a rise, I heard for the first time the voice 
of the many waters, and called the attention of my friends 
within the carriage to the sound. 

Never let any impatient man set out for Niagara in one of 
these coaches ; a railroad could hardly keep pace with one's 
eagerness, and here Ave were crawling at the rate of four miles 
per hour. 

I fancied that the last three miles never would be accom- 
plished ; and often wished internally, as I beat the devil's 
tattoo upon the footboard, that I had bought or stolen a horse 
at Chippewa, and galloped to the wonder alone and silently. 



48 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

At length the hotel came in view^ and I knew that the 
rapid was close at hand. 

"Now, sir, look out !" quietly said the dinver. 

I almost determined upon shutting my eyes or turning 
away my head ; but I do not think it would have been within 
the compass of my will so to have governed them ; for even 
at this distant moment, as I write, I find my pen move too 
slow to keep pace with the recollections of the impatience 
which I seek to record. 

It was at the moment we struck the foot of the hill lead- 
ing up to the hotel, that the rapid and the great Horse-Shoe 
Fall became \'isible over the sunken trees to our right, almost 
on a level with us. I have heard people talk of having felt 
disappointed on a first view of this stupendous scene : by 
what process they arrived at this conclusion, I profess myself 
utterly incapable of divining, since even now that two years 
have almost gone by, I find on this point my feehngs are not 
yet to be analyzed; I dare not trust myself to their guidance, 
and only know that my wildest imaginings were forgotten in 
contemplating this awful reality. A very few minutes after 
we were released from the confinement of the ooach, saw 
myself and companions upon the Table-rock ; and soon after 
we were submitting to the equipment provided by a man 
resident upon the spot, for persons who choose to penetrate 
beneath the great Fall, and whose advertisement assured us 
that the gratification of curiosity was unattended with 
either inconvenience or danger, as water-proof dresses Avere 
kept in readiness, together with an experienced guide. The 
water-proof dress given me I found still wet through; and 
on the arrival of the experienced guide, I was not a little 
surprised to see the fellow, after a long stare in my face, 
exclaim, 

" Och, blood an' 'oons ! Mr. Power, sure it's not yer 
honour that's come all this way from home \" 

An explanation took place ; when I found that our guide, 
whom I had seen some two years before as a helper in the 
stable of my hospitable friend Smith Barry, at Floaty, was 



TYRONE POWER. 49 

this summer promoted to tlie office of '' Conductor/' as he 
styled himself, under the waterfall. 

And a most whimsical " conductor" he proved. His 
cautions and his " divils a fears \" and " not a hap'orth of 
danger \" must have been mighty assuring to the timid or 
nervouSj if any such ever make this experiment, which, 
although perfectly safe, is not a little startling. 

His directions, — when we arrived at the point where the 
mist, pent in beneath the overhanging rock, makes it impos- 
sible to distinguish anything, and where the rush of air is so 
violent as to render respiration for a few seconds almost im- 
practicable — were inimitable. 

" Now, yer honour !" he shouted in my ear — for we moved 
in Indian file, — " whisper the next gentleman to follow you 
smart ; and for the love o' God ! shoulder the rock close, 
stoop yer heads, and shut fast yer eyes, or you wont be able 
to see an inch!" 

I repeated my orders verbatim, though the cutting Aviud 
made it difficult to open one's mouth. 

" Now then, yer honour," he cried, cowering down as he 
spoke, " do as you see me do; hould yer breath, and scurry 
after like divils ! " 

With the last word he bolted, and was out of sight in an 
instant. I repeated his directions, however, to the next in 
file, and, as directed, scurried after. 

This rather difficult point passed, I came upon my country- 
man waiting for us within the edge of the curve described by 
this falling ocean ; he grasped my wrist firmly as I emerged 
from the dense drift, and shouted in my ear — 

" Luk up, sir, at the green sea that's rowlin 'over us ! 
Murdur ! bud iv it only was to take a shlope in on us !" 

Here we could see and breathe with perfect ease ; and even 
the ludicrous gestures and odd remarks of my poetical 
countryman could not wholly rob the scene of its striking 
grandeur. I next passed beyond my guide as he stood tiptoe 
against the rock, upon a ledge on which we trod, and under 
his direction attained that limit, beyond which the foot of 



50 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

man never pressed. I sat for one moment on tlie Termi- 
nation Rockj and then followed my guide back to my com- 
panions, when together we once more " scurried" into day. 

" Isn't it illigant, sir ?" began the " Conductor " as soon 
as we were well clear of the mist. 

"Isn't it a noble sight intirely? Caps the world for 
grandness any way, that's sartain V 

I need hardly say that in this opinion we all loudly joined ; 
but Mr. Conductor was not yet done with us, — he had now 
to give us a taste of his " larnin'." 

" I wish ye'd take notice, sir," said he, pointing across the 
river with an air of authority and a look of infinite wisdom. 
" Only take a Ink at the Falls ; now ye may see Avid your 
own eyes that Shakespere is out altogether about the descrip- 
tion.'' 

'' How's that, Pat," inquired I, although not a little taken 
aback by the authority so gravely quoted by my critical 
friend. 

'' Why, sir, Shakespere first of all says that there 's two 
Falls ; now, ye may see wid yer own eyes that it' s one river 
sure, and one Fall, only for the shript o'rock that makes two 
af id." 

This I admitted was evident; whilst Pat gravely went on : 

" Thin agin, only Ink here, sir ; Shakespere says, ' The 
cloud-capt tower ;' why, if he'd ever taken the trouble to luk 
at it, he'd seen better than that ; an' if he wasn't a fool — 
which I'm sure he wasn't, bein' a grand poet, — he'd know 
that the clouds never can rise to cap the tower, by reason 
that it stands up above the Fall, and that the current for ever 
sets down." 

Again I agreed with him, excusing Shakespere's discrep- 
ancies on the score of his never having had a proper gu de 
to explain these matters. 

" I don't know who at all showed him the place," gravely 
responded Pat ; " but it 's my belief he never was in id at all 
at all, though the gintleman that tould me a heap more 
about it swears for sartin that he was." 



THE FERRY. 51 

This last remark, and the important air with which the 
doubt was conveyed, proved too much for ray risible faculties, 
already suffering some constraint, and I fairly roared out in 
concert with my companion, who had been for some time con- 
vulsed with laughter. The next morning at an early hour I 
rcAdsited the '^ Termination Rock," but excused myself from 
being accompanied by the " Conductor." I next wandered 
down the stream, and had a delightful bath in it. Accom- 
panied by a friend, I was pulled in a skiff as close to the Fall 
as possible, and in short performed all the observances that 
have been suggested and practised by curiosity or idleness ; 
but in all these I found no sensation equal to a long quiet 
contemplation of the mass entire, not as viewed from the 
balconies of the hotel, but from some rocky point or woody 
shade, where house, and fence, and man, and^ all his petty 
doings were shut out, and the eye left calmly to gaze upon 
the awful scene, and the rapt mind to raise its thoughts to 
Him who loosed this eternal flood, and guides it harmless as 
the petty brook. There never should have been a house per- 
mitted within sight of the Fall at least. How I have envied 
those who first sought Niagara, through the scarce-trod 
wilderness, with the Indian for a guide ; and who slept upon 
its banks with the summer-trees for their only shelter, with 
the sound of its waters for their only reveille. 



THE FERRY— CANADA VIEWS— CITY OF TPIE FALLS. 

There is another staircase leading down the bank^ about six 
rods below the Falls, where visitors will find a safe ferry to 
the Canada side, and have an opportunity of viewing a scene 
of surpassing grandeur. The deep-green glassy river beneath, 
the awful precipice of rocks, and the mighty floods rolling 
and tumbling from the heights above, and the singularly 
wild, romantic, and variegated scenery around, fill the mind of 
the beholder with sensations not to be described. Here one 



53 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

may perceive the propriety and beauty of the figure repre- 
senting Him, who is the " Rock of Ages/' as " the shadow of 
a great rock in a weary hind/' to those who fly to him for 
refuge. 

" While viewing thee 
I think how grand and beautiful is God, 
When man has not intruded on his works, 
But left his bright creation unimpaired. 

Blessed scenes ! 
it is no mortal touch 
That sharpened thy rough brow, or fringed thy skirts 
With coarse luxuriance ; — 'twas the lightning's force 
Daslied its strong flash across thee, and did point 
The crag ; or, with his stormy thunderbolt, 
The Almighty Architect himself disjoined 
Yon rock ; then flung it down where now it hangs, 
And said — do thou lie there." 

The ferryman, j\Ir. S. L. Ware, on the American, and Mr. 
J. Shultersburgh, on the Canada side, are both very civil and 
accommodating, well acquainted with their business, and able 
to give much information to visitors. Whenever required, 
they take parties out on pleasure or fishing excursions, and 
thus enable them to take a more extensive view of the 
gorgeous river-scenery. The construction of a carriage-road 
is contemplated, down these perpendicular banks, so as to have 
a ferry for teams and carriages; and when it is completed, 
must become a great and important thoroughfare for 
travellers. 

Directly opposite the Falls on the Canada side, an enter- 
prising Company, a few years since, purchased the grounds 
formerly owned by Mr. Forsyth, projected and laid out a city, 
which they called " The City of the Falls," and have made 
some improvements. They intended to have schools, 
churches, libraries, ball and promenade rooms, baths, public 
gardens, and indeed every thing considered necessary to an 
elegant and fashionable city. Tlie lots and streets are laid 
out with much judgment and taste ; but whether the antici- 
pations of the enterprising projectors will ever be realized, 
other generations must tell. 



CANADA VIEWS CITY OF THE FALLS. 53 

The table-land on the river's bank below the Falls, and 
opposite the ferry, owned by Captain Creighton, lias also been 
surveyed into lots for a village, which is called " Clifton ;" 
and here, directly at the top of the ferry-road, stands the 
Clifton House, erected by Mr. Chrysler, which contains 
upwards of sixty rooms, and will accommodate nearly one 
hundred guests. This is a very delightful site for a village, 
and is one of the most pleasant places of resort on that side 
of the river. The following stanza of Byron, is beautifully 
descriptive of this place : 

" From thy shady brow, 

Thou small, but favoured spot of holy grouud ! 
Where'er we gaze, around, above, below, 

What rainbow tints, what magic charms are found ! 
Rock, river, forest, mountain, all abound, 

And bluest skies that harmonize the whole ; 
Beneath, the distant torrent's rushing sound 

Tells where the volumed cataract doth roll 
Between those hanging rocks, that shock yet please the soul." 

In ascending the high bank the visitor is presented with 
some delightful views of the Falls and rapids, and of the sur- 
rounding country. The two principal hotels on the Canada 
side, are the Ontario House, on the high bank nearly opposite 
the great Fall, and the Clifton House, at the head of the 
carriage-road, both of which have ample accommodations. 
The Pavilion was totally destroyed by fire, in February, 
1839. 

Strangers who have never visited the Falls, have an idea 
that the surrounding country must be mountainous, like that 
in the vicinity of most other Falls ; but the general aspect of 
the country here for a great extent on both sides of the river, 
above and below, is that of an almost perfect level, and 
nothing indicates the existence of the river or the Falls, 
except the constantly ascending and floating mist, and a sub- 
terraneous, thundering roar. Below the Falls, the earth and 
rocks appear as though they had been suddenly rent asimder 
and separated one-fourth of a mile apart, in order, by the 



54 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

perpendicular chasm thus mads, to form a channel for the 
river. The corresponding portions of rock are as regiilar 
in the succession of their strata, as would be the leaves and 
cover of a book, if they were bisected and placed opposite 
each other. The whole country in Canada, between the 
two lakes, except a narrow strip bordering upon Lake 
Ontario, is generally level, rich and productive, and is also 
becoming quite populous. In visiting the Canada side, 
you can cross the river at Black Rock, Lewiston, or at 
the Falls; and can always have carriages on that side, 
to transport you whither you choose. Stage-coaches run 
from the Hotels to Queenston and Niagara, daily; also 
to Chippewa and Buffalo. From Chippewa, the steam- 
boat Red Jacket runs daily to Buffalo, leaving Chippewa 
in the afternoon. No one should fail of visiting the Canada 
side, as this grand and unparalleled scene of nature's won- 
ders, the fame whereof is spread over the world, should be 
viewed and contemplated from every position. 



NIAGARA.— BY WILLIS, IN 1835. 

" He was born when the Crab was ascending, 
And all his affairs go backward." — Love for Love. 

It was in my senior vacation, and I was bound to Niagara 
for the first time. My companion was a specimen of the 
human race found rarely in Vermont, and never elsewhere. 
He was nearly seven feet high, walked as if every joint 
in his body was in a hopeless state of dislocation, and was 
hideously, ludicrously, and painfully ugly. This whimsical 
exterior contained the conscious spirit of Apollo, and the 
poetical susceptibility of Keats. He had left his plough 
in the green mountains at the age of twenty-five, and 
entered as a poor student at the University, where, with 
the usual policy of a college government, he was allotted 



WILLIS. 55 

to me as a compulsory chum, on the principle of breakirig- 
in a colt with a cart-horse. I began with laughing at him, 
and ended with loving him. He rejoiced in the common 
appellation of Job Smith — a synonymous soubriquet, as 
I have elsewhere remarked, which was substituted by his 
classmates for his baptismal name of Forbearance. Getting 
Job away with infinite difficulty from a young Indian girl 
who was selling moccasins in the streets of Buffalo, (a straight, 
slender creature of eighteen, stepping about like a young 
leopard, cold, stern, and beautiful,) we crossed the outlet 
of Lake Erie at the ferry, and took horses on the northern 
bank of Niagara river, to ride to the Falls. It was a noble 
stream, as broad as the Hellespont, and as blue as the sky, 
and I could not look at it, hurrying ou headlong to its fearful 
leap, without a feeling almost of dread. 

There was only one thing to which Job was more suscep- 
tible than to the beauties of nature, and that was the beauty 
of woman. His romance had been stirred by the lynx-eyed 
Siouse, who took her money for the moccasins with such 
haughty and thankless superbia, and full five miles of the 
river, with all the gorgeous flowers and rich shrubs upon its 
brim, might as well have been Lethe for his admiration. 
The roar of the Falls was soon audible, and Job's enthusiasm 
and my own, if the increased pace of our Naragansett ponies 
meant anything, were fully aroused. The river broke into 
rapids, foaming furiously on its course, and the subterranean 
thunder increased like a succession of earthquakes, each 
louder than the last. I had never heard a sound so broad 
and universal. It was impossible not to suspend the breath, 
and feel absorbed, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, 
in the great phenomenon with which the world seemed 
trembling to its centre. A tall misty cloud, changing its 
shape continually, as it felt the shocks of the air, rose up 
before us, and with our eyes fixed upon it, and our horses 
at a hard gallop, we found ourselves unexpectedly in front 
of a vast white — hotel ! which suddenly interposed between 
the cloud and our vision. Job slapped his legs against the 



56 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

sides of liis panting beast, and urged him on, but a long 
fence on eitber side tbe immense building, cut hira off from 
all approach; and having assured ourselves that there was 
no access' to Niagara, except through the back-door of the 
gentleman's house, who stood Avith his hat off to receive 
us, we wished no good to his Majesty^s province of Upper 
Canada, and dismounted, 

" Will you visit the Falls before dinner, gentlemen ?" 
asked mine host. 

"No, sir V thundered Job, in a voice that, for a moment, 
stopped the roar of the cataract. 

He was like an improvisatore, who had been checked by 
some rude birbone in the very crisis of his eloquence. 
He would not have gone to the Falls that night to have 
saved the world. We dined. 

As it was the first meal we had ever eaten under a monarchy, 
I proposed the health of the king ; but Job refused it. 

There was an impertinent profanity, he said, in fencing 
up the entrance to Niagara, that was a greater encroachment 
on natural liberty than the stamp-act. 

He would drink to no king or parliament under which 
such a thing could be conceived possible. I left the table, 
and walked to the window. 

" Job, come here ! Miss , by all that is lovely \" 

He flounced up like a snake touched by a torpedo, and 
sprang to the window. Job had never seen the lady whose 
name produced such a sensation, but he had heard more 
of her than of Niagara. So had every soul of the fifteen 
millions of inhabitants between us and the Gulf of Mexico. 
She was one of those miracles of nature that occur, perhaps, 
once in the rise and fall of an empire — a woman of the 
perfect beauty of an angel, with the most winning human 
sweetness of character and manner. She was kind, playful, 
unaffected, and radiantly, gloriously beautiful. I am sorry 
I may not mention her name, for in more chivalrous times 
she would have been a character of histor}^ Everybody 
who has been in America, however, will know whom I am 



^VILLIS. 57 

describing, and I ain sorry for those who have not. The 
country of Washington will be in its decadence before it 
sees such another. 

She had been to the Fall, and was returning with her 
mother and a troop of lovers, who, I will venture to presume, 
brought away a very imperfect impression of the scene, 

I would describe her as she came laughing up that green 
bank, unconscious of everything but the pleasure of life 
in a summer's sun-set; but I leave it for a more skilful 
hand. The authoress of " Hope Leslie " will, perhaps, mould 
her image into one of her inimitable heroines. 

I presented my friend, and we passed the evening in her 
dangerous company. After making an engagement to ac- 
company her in the morning behind the sheet of the Falls, 
we said good-night at twelve — one of us at least as many 
" fathom deep in love," as a thousand Rosalinds. My poor 
chum ! The roar of the cataract, that shook the very roof 
over thy head, was less loud to thee that night than the 
beating of thine own heart, I warrant me ! I rose at sun- 
rise to go alone to the Fall, but Job was before me, and 
the angular outline of his gaunt figure, stretching up in 
strong relief against the white body of the spray, was the 
first object that caught my eye as I descended. 

As I came nearer the Fall, a feeling of disappointment 
came over me. I had imagined Niagara a vast body of 
water descending as if from the clouds. The approach 
to most Falls is from below, and we get an idea of them 
as of rivers pitching down to the plain from the brow of 
a hill or mountain. Niagara river, on the contrary, comes 
out from Lake Erie through a flat plain. The top of the 
cascade is ten feet perhaps below the level of the country 
ai'ound, consequently invisible from any considerable dis- 
tance. You walk to the bank of a broad and rapid river, 
and look over the edge of a rock, where the outlet flood 
of an inland sea seems to have broken through the crust of 
the earth, and, by its mere weight, plunged with an awful 
leap into an immeasurable and resounding abyss. It seems 

£ 



58 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

to strike and tlmnder upon tlie very centre of the world, 
and the ground beneath your feet quivers with the shock 
till you feel unsafe upon it. 

Other disappointment than this I cannot conceive at 
Niagara. It is a spectacle so awful, so beyond the scope 
and power of any other phenomenon in the world, that 
I think people who are disappointed there, mistake the 
incapacity of their own conception for the want of grandeur 
in the scene. 

The " hell of waters " below, needs but a little red ochre 
to ovit-phlegethon Phlegethon. I can imagine the surprisp 
of the gentle element, after sleeping away a se^nnight of 
moonlight in the peaceful bosom of Lake Erie/ at finding 
itself of a sudden in such a coil ! A Mediterranean sea-gull, 
which had tossed out the whole of a January in the infernal 
" yeast " of the Archipelago, (was I not all but wrecked 
every day between Troy and Malta, in a score of successive 
hurricanes?) — I say, the most weather-beaten of sea-birds 
would look twice before he ventured upon the roaring 
caldron below Niagara. It is astonishing to see how far 
the descending mass is driven under the surface of the 
stream. As far down towards I^ake Ontario as the eye can 
reach, the immense volumes of water rise like huge monsters 
to the light, boiling and flashing out in rings of foam, with 
an appearance of rage and anger that I have seen in no 
other cataract in the world. 

"A nice Fall, as an Englishman would say, my dear Job." 

" Awful V 

Walleck, the American poet, (a better one never "" strung 
pearls,") has written some admirable verses on Niagara, 
describing its effects on the different individuals of a mixed 
party, among whom was a tailor. The sea of incident that 
has broken over me in years of travel, has washed out of 
my memory all but two lines descriptive of its impression 
upon Snip : — 

" The tailor made one single note — 
Gods ! what a place to sponge a coat !" 



WILLIS. 59 

" Shall we go to breakfast, Job ?" 

" How slowly and solemnly they drop into the abysm \" 

It was not an original remark of Mr. Smith's. Nothing 
is so surprising to the observer as the extraordinary deliber- 
ateness with which the waters of Niagara take their tremen- 
dous plunge. All hurry, and foam, and fret, till they 
reach the smooth limit of the curve — and then the laws of 
gravitation seem suspended, and, like Caesar, they pause, 
and determine, since it is inevitable, to take the death-leap 
with becoming diguit3% 

" Shall we go to breakfast. Job ?" I was obliged to raise 
my voice, to be heard, to a pitch rather exhausting to an 
empty stomach. 

His eyes remained fixed upon the shifting rainbows bend- 
ing and vanishing in the spray. There was no moving him, 
and I gave in for another five minutes. 

" Do you think it probable, Job, that the waters of Niagara 
strike on the axis of the world ?" 

No answer. 

"Job!" 

" What ?" 

" Do you think his Majesty's half of the cataract is finer 
than ours V 

" Much." 

'^For tt'c/er, mereh', perhaps. But look at the delicious 
verdure on the American shore, the glorious trees, the 
mass'd foliage, the luxuriant growth even to the very rim of 
the ravine ! By Jove ! it seems to me, things grow better 
in a republic. Did you ever see a more barren or scraggy 
shore than the one you stand upon." 

" How exquisitely," said Job, soliloquising, " that small 
srreen island divides the Fall ! What a rock it must be 
founded on, not to have been washed away in the ages that 
these waters have split against it !" 

" I'll lay you a bet it is washed away before the year two 
thousand — payable in any currency with which we may then 
be conversant." 

E 2 



60 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. > 

" Don't trifle \" 

" With time, or geology, do you mean ? Isn't it perfectly 
clear from the looks of that ravine, that Niagara has backed 
up all the way from Lake Ontario? these rocks are not 
adamant, and the very precipice* you stand on has cracked, 
and looks ready for the plmige. It must gradually wear 
back to Lake Erie, and then there will be a sweep. I should 
like to live long enough to see. The instantaneous junction 
of two seas, with a diff'erence of two hundred feet in their 
level, will be a spectacle — eh. Job ?" 

" Tremendous V 

" Do you intend to wait and see it, or will you come to 
breakfast ?" 

He was immovable. I left him on the rock, went up to 
the hotel, and ordered mutton-chops and coffee, and when 
they were on the table gave two of the waiters a dollar each 
to bring him up nolens volens. 

He arrived in a great rage, but with a good appetite, and 

we finished our breakfast just in time to meet Miss , as 

she stepped like Aurora from her chamber. It is necessary 
to a reputation for prowess in the United States to have been 
behind the sheet of the Fall (supposing you to have been to 
Niagara.) This achievement is equivalent to a hundred 
shower-baths, one severe cold, and being drowned twice — 
but most people do it. 

We descended to the bottom of the precipice at the side 
of the Fall, where we found a small house, furnished with 
coarse linen dresses for the purpose, and having arranged 
ourselves in habiliments not particularly improving to our 
natural beauty, we re-appeared — only three out of a party 
of ten having had the courage to trust their attractions to 

such a trial. Miss looked like a fairy in disguise, and 

Job hke the most ghostly and diabolical monster that ever 
stalked unsepultured abroad. He would frighten a cliild in 

« It has since fallen iuto tlie abyss — fortunately in the night, as visitors 
were always upon it during the day. The noise was heard at an incredible 
distance. 



WILLIS. 61 

his best black suit— l)ut with a pair of wet linen trousers 
scarce reaching to his knees, a jacket with sleeves shrunk 
to the elbows, and a white cap, he was something super- 
naturally awful. 

We quite hesitated about going under the Fall with him. 

It looked rather appalling. Our way lay through a dense 
descending sheet of water, along a slender pathway of rocks, 
broken into small fragments, with an overhanging wall on 
one side, and the boiling caldron of the cataract on the 
other. A false step, and you were a subject for the " shock- 
ing accident" maker. 

The guide went first, taking Miss 's right hand. She 

gave me her left, and Job brought up the rear, as they say 
in Connecticut, " on his own hook." We picked our way 
boldly up to the water. The wall leaned so much, and the 
fragmented declivity was so narrow and steep, that, if it had 
not been done before, I should have turned back at once; 
two steps more, and the small hand in mine began to 
struggle violently, and, in the same instant, the torrent beat 
into my mouth, eyes, and nostrils, and I felt as if I was 
drowning. I staggered a blind step forward, but still the 
water poured into my nostrils, and the conviction rushed 
for a moment on my mind that we were lost. I struggled 
for breath, stumbled forward, and, with a gasp that I thought 
Avas my last, sunk, upon the rocks within the descending 
waters. Job tumbled over me the next instant, and as soon 
as I could clear my eyes sufficiently to look about me, I saw 

the guide sustaining Miss , who had been as nearly 

drowned as most of the subjects of the Humane Society, 
but was apparently in a state of resuscitation. None but 
the half-drowned know the pleasure of breathing. Here we 
were within a chamber that Undine might have coveted, a 
wall of rock at our back, and a transparent curtain of shift- 
ing water between us and the world, having entitled our- 
selves a peu pres to the same reputation with Hylas and 
Leander, for seduction by the NaVads. Whatever sister of 
Arethusa inhabits there, Ave could but congratulate her on 



63 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

the beauty of her abode. A lofty and well-lighted hall, 
shaped like a long pavilion, extending as far as we could see 
through the spray, and with the two objections that you 
could not have heard a pistol at your ear for the noise, and 
that the floor was somewhat precipitous, one would scarce 
imagine a more agreeable retreat for a gentleman who was 
disgusted with the world, and subject to dryness of the skin. 
In one respect it resembled the enchanted dwelling of the 
Witch of Atlas, where Shelley tells us, — 

" The invisible rain did ever sing 
A silver music on the mossy lawn." 

It is lucky for Witches and Naiads that they are not 
subject to rheumatism. 

The air was scarcely breathable — (if air it may be called, 
which streams down the face with the density of a shower 
from a watering-pot,) and our footing upon the slippery 
rocks was so insecure, that the exertion of continually wiping 
our eyes was attended with imminent danger. Our sight was 
valuable, for, surely, never was such a brilliant curtain hung 
up to the sight of mortals, as spread apparently from the 
zenith to our feet, changing in thickness and lustre, but 
with a constant and resplendent curve. It was what a child 
might imagine the arch of the sky to be when it bends over 
the edge of the horizon. 

The sublime is certainly very much diluted when one con- 
templates it with his back to a dripping and shiny rock, and 
his person saturated with a continual supply of water. From 
a dry window, I think the infernal writhe and agony of the 
abyss into which we were continually liable to slip, would 
liave been as fine a thing as I have seen in my travels ; I am 
free to admit, that, at the moment, I would have exchanged 
my experience and all the honour attached to it for a dry 
escape. The idea of droivnlng back through that thick 
column of water, was at least a damper to enthusiasm. We 
seemed cut off from the living. There was a death between 
us and the vital air and sunshine. I was screwing up my 
«ourage for the return, when the guide seized me by the 



WILLIS. 63 

shoulder. I looked around, and wliat was my horror to see 

Miss standing far in behind the sheet upon the last 

visible point of rock, with the water pouring over her in 
torrents, and a gulf of foam between us, which I could in no 
way understand how she had passed over. 

She seemed frightened and pale, and the guide explained 
to me by signs, (for I could not distinguish a syllable through 
the roar of the cataract,) that she had walked over a narrow 
ledge which had broken with her weight. A long fresh mark 
upon the rock at the foot of the precipitous wall, made it 
sufficiently evident. Her position was most alarming. I made 
a sign to her to look well to her feet ; for the little island she 
stood upon was green with slirae and scarce larger than a hat, 
and an abyss of full six feet wide, foaming and unfathomable, 
raged between it and the nearest foothold. What was to be 
done ? Had we a plank, even, there was no possible hold for 
the further extremity, and the shape of the rock was so 
conical, that its slippeiy surface evidently would not hold 
a rope for a moment. To jump to her, even if it were 
possible, would endanger her life, and while I was smiling 
and encouraging the beautiful creature, as she stood trem- 
bling and pale on her dangerous foothold, I felt my very 
heart sink within me. The despairing guide said something 
which I could not hear, and disappeared through the watery 
wall, and I fixed my eyes upon the lovely form, standing 
like a spirit in the misty shroud of the spray, as if the 
intensity of my gaze could sustain her upon her dangerous 
foothold. I would have given ten years of my life at that 
moment to have clasped her hand in mine. 

I had scarce thought of Job until I felt him trying to pass 
behind me. His hand was trembling as he laid it on my 
shoulder to steady his steps ; but there was something in his 
ill-hewn features that shot an indefinite ray of hope through 
my mind. His sandy hair was plastered over his forehead, 
and his scant dress clung to him like a skin ; but though 
I recall his image noiv with a smile, I looked upon him with 
a feeling far enough fi-om amusement then. God bless thee, 



6-4 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

my dear Job ! wherever in this unfit world thy fine spirit 
may be fulfilling its destiny ! 

He crept down carefully to the edge of the foaming abyss, 
till he stood Avith the breaking bubbles at his knees. I was 
at a loss to know what he intended. She surely would not 
dare to attempt to jump to his arms from that slippery rock, 
and to reach her in any way seemed impossible. 

The next instant he threw himself forward ; and while I 
covered my eyes in horror, with the flashing conviction that he 
had gone mad and flung himself into the hopeless whirlpool to 
reach her, she had crossed the awful gulf, and lay tremb- 
ling and exhausted at my feet ! He had thrown himself over 
the chasm, caught the rock barely with the extremities of his 
fingers, and with certain death, if he missed his hold or 
slipped from his uncertain tenure, had sustained her with 
supernatural strength as she walked over his body ! 

The guide providentially returned with a rope in the same 
instant, and fastening it around one of his feet, we dragged 
him back through the whirlpool ; and after a moment or two, 
to recover from the suffocating immersion, he fell on his 
knees, and we joined him, I doiibt not, devoutly, in his 
audible thanks to God. 



NIAGARA.— BY .FAMES STUART, ESQ., 1833. 
( From " Three Years in North America. '') 

We distinctly heard the sound of the cataract, about ten 
miles from the Falls ; but it is often heard at a far greater 
distance in f ivourable states of the wind and atmosphere, 
even, it is said, thirty miles from them. The spray, appear- 
ing like a cloud of smoke, was visible at the distance of more 
than two miles. 

There is a steep wooden stair from the landing-place to 
the top of the bank on the American side, and from thence 
by the bridge over the rapids Goat Island is readily 



JAMES STUART. 65 

approached. On tbe nortli side of that Island^ the 
rocks, projected into the river 200 or 300 feet immediately 
over the Falls, are accessible by a rough wooden bridge, 
below which the water rims with fearful velocity. From 
these rocks, the view over the precipice and great Fall is 
terrific, — absolutely appalling, although the prodigious mag- 
nitude of the trembling waters is not so apparent at this spot 
as from the Table Rock and the boat. I descended a spiral 
staircase, which conducts to the edge of the river, below the 
Table Rock, but did not proceed into the cavern below the 
rock. The ground was exceedingly slippery. A false step 
might have precipitated me into the abyss. The spray was 
driving in no small quantities into the cavern. Were it not 
for those serious obstacles impeding the approach, and which 
at all times exist to a considerable extent, the edge of the 
cavern would be the station, of all others the most sublime 
for contemplating this extraordinary sight. There is, how- 
ever, an excellent point of view, which the spray very often 
does not prevent the spectator from enjoying, somewhat 
nearer the Falls than the foot of the ladder, and there it is 
perhaps as Avell that cautious travellers should stop. 

The overwhelming sensations, with which a spectator can 
hardly fail to be affected, are produced by the immense 
flood, — -not less than 100 millions of tons of water per hour, 
— the stupendous mass and overpowering force of the roaring 
and falling waters. It is in truth a great deep ocean, 
thrown over a precipice nearly 160 feet high. Every thing, 
every surrounding object, is viewed with indifference, while 
the mind is wholly absorbed in the contemplation of a spec- 
tacle so sublime — surpassing in majesty and grandeur and 
power, all the works of nature which have ever arrested the 
attention, or presented themselves to the imagination. No 
just or adequate description can be conveyed by language. 
Such words as grandeur, majesty, sublimity, fail altogether 
to express the feelings which so magnificent a sight, exceed- 
ing so immeasurably all of the same kind that we have ever 
seen or imagined, excites. 



C6 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Dr. Hosack's Life of Clinton contains a letter from the 
late Governor Morris^ the American minister in France, to his 
friend, Mr. John Parish of Hamburg, giving an account of 
a journey he had been making in the State of New York. 

His allusion to the Falls of Niagara, in the following 
paragraph, seems to me exceedingly just, and to afford, as far 
as can be done by verbal description, the simplest, plainest, 
and most intelligible data for forming a conception of them : 

" To form," (says Mr. Morris,) " a faint idea of the cata- 
ract, imagine to yourself the Frith of Forth rushing wrath- 
full}^ down a deep descent, foaming over a perpendicular 
175 feet high, then flowing away in the semblance of milk 
from a vast basin of emerald. Suppose, then, for the sake 
of greater accuracy, the Frith of Forth at Queen's-ferry, or 
rather that part of it interjected between Inch-Garvie Island 
and the north shore, where it is not quite so wide as the 
river Niagara at the top of the Falls, tumbling in mass over 
a precipitous rock 160 feet into an abyss, and you will then 
have some notion of the unparalleled, the petrifying influ- 
ence, with which the Falls of Niagara impress the beholder. 
But truly, as the poet says, the eye of man must see this 
miracle to comprehend it, or the feeling it produces. 

The great volume of water, of course, inclines very much 
forward in its descent, projecting about fifty feet from the 
base, and falls, for the most part of the perpendicular height, 
in an unbroken sheet of a dark-green colour, until it meets 
a cloud of spray ascending from the rocks below, in which 
it is lost to the eye. 

We were fortunate in having fine weather, — bright sun- 
shine, — when we were on the spot. The prismatic colours 
were always to be seen; and more than once we had rain- 
bows complete, of the most vivid colours, and peculiarly 
briUiant at sunrise, but of the beauty of which it is impos- 
sible to give any idea. " It is left alone," as Darby very 
correctly remarks, " in simple and sublime dignity, to im- 
press upon the soul a sense of majestic grandeur, which loss 
of life or intellect can alone obliterate, and the force of 



JAMES STUART. 67 

which no language can convey. If towering mountains and 
craggy rocks surrounded Niagara^ much of its first effect 
would be lost. As it is, it is an image whose whole contour 
is at once seen, and the view unbroken by extraneous 
objects. Even sound is subservient to the impression made 
upon the heart. None is heard except the eternal war of 
the cataract. '^ 

The current for more than a mile above the Falls is so 
swift, that accidents not unfrequently happen from the fool- 
hardiness of persons attempting to cross the river in small 
boats, near that part of it where the rapids commence. 
Many sad recitals were given us ; but we took more pleasure 
in turning to the account of the almost miraculous escape 
of Chateaubriand from being thrown over the precipice, 
above the Falls themselves, — an instance of good fortune 
not unworthy of being noticed. " On his arrival he had 
repaired to the Fall, having the bridle of his horse twisted 
round his arm. While he was stopping to look down, a 
rattlesnake stirred among the neighbouring bushes, the 
horse was startled, reared, and ran back towards the abyss. 
He could not disengage his arm from the bridle, and the 
horse, more and more frightened, dragged him after him. 
His fore-legs were all but off the ground, and squatting on 
the brink of the precipice, he was upheld merely by the 
bridle. He gave himself up for lost, when the animal 
astonished at this new danger, threw himself forward with 
a pirouette, and sprang to a distance of ten feet from the 
edge of the precipice." Those who have dreamed that they 
were on the point of being thrown over a perpendicular cliff, 
and who awaking, find themselves well, and comfortably in 
bed, will be able to form some idea of the sensation of this 
celebrated person at such a time. The great lakes of the 
St. Lawrence contain a mass more than one-half the fresh 
water on this planet — the solid contents being, according 
to Darby, 1,547,011,792,360,000, and the superficial area 
in square miles being 72,930, a quantity, which would form 
a cubic, column of nearly twenty-two miles on each side. 



68 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



WELLAND CANAL.— BROCK'S MONUMENT.— BURNING SPRING. 

Eight miles west from the Falls is tlie Welland Canal, 
connecting the waters of Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, and 
affording a passage for sloops and schooners of 125 tons 
burthen. This canal commences at Port Maitland, near 
the mouth of Grand River, on Lake Erie, 48 miles west of 
Buffalo. It runs in a straight line across Wainfleet Marsh, 
crosses the Chippewa river by means of an aqueduct, and 
enters Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Twelve- Mile Creek. 
It is 43 miles in length, 56 feet in width, and varies from 
8 J to 16 feet in depth. The whole descent from one lake 
to another, 334 feet, is accomplished by means of 37 locks. 
At the deep-cut, on what is called the mountain-ridge, the 
excavation is 45 feet in depth; and 1,477,700 cubic feet 
of earth, and 1,890,000 cubic feet of rock were removed. 
The locks here are 22 by 100 feet, and west of this ridge 
they are 45 by 125 feet. The canal was commenced in the 
year 1824, and completed in five years, and cost over 1,000,000 
dollars. A part of the stock is owned by individuals in the 
State of New York. The company own all the land along 
the line of the canal, including the hydraulic privileges; and 
another tract, containing about 16,000 acres, has been 
granted to them by the British Government. 

Six miles and a half north from the Falls, upon Queenston 
Heights, is General Brock's Monument, constructed of free- 
stone, 126 feet high, and admitting an ascent to the top by 
a flight of 170 winding steps. From this eminence, the 
country around, including the picturesque lake - and - river 
scenery, may be seen for fifty miles. The following is the 
inscription on this Monument : 

"The Legislature of Upper Canada has dedicated this 
Monument to the many civil and military serA^ces of the 
late Sir James Brock, Knight, Commander of the most 
Honorable Order of the Bath, Provincial Lieutenant- 



JIRS. JAMESON. 69 

Governor and Major-General, commanding His Majesty's 
forces therein. He fell in action, on the 13th of October, 1812, 
honoured and beloved by those whom he governed, and 
deplored by his Sovereign, to whose services his life had 
been devoted. His remains are deposited in this vault, as 
also his Aid-de-Camp, Lieutenant-Colonel John McDonald, 
who died of his wounds the 14th of October, 1813, received 
the day before, in action.'' 

One mile above the Palls, near the rapids, on the Canada 
side, is the Burning Spring. This is in a state of constant 
ebullition, and from it issues a stream of sulphurated hydrogen 
gas, which quickly ignites on the touch of a candle, and 
burns with a brilliant flame. The spring is enclosed in a 
barrel, which collects the gas, and lets it through a tube 
inserted at the top. This gas might, without doubt, be 
communicated by pipes to neighbouring buildings, and sub- 
stituted for candles and lamps. The keeper of the spring, 
Mr. J. Conklin, expects a small fee from visitors, for his 
trouble. There are strong indications at this Spring of 
a bed of coal near, but no effort has yet been made to dis- 
cover it. 



NIAGARA IN WINTER.— BY MRS. JAMESON. 
January 29, 1837. 

Well ! I have seen these cataracts of Niagara, which have 
thTindered in my mind's ear ever since I can remember — 
which have been my " childhood's thought, my youth's 
desire," since first my imagination was awakened to wonder 
and to wish. I have beheld them ; and shall I whisper it 
to you ? — but, O tell it not among the Philistines ! — I wish 
I had not ! I wish they were still a thing to behold — a thing 
to be imagined, hoped, and anticipated — something to live 
for : — the reality has displaced from my mind an illusion far 
more magnificent than itself — I have no words for mv utter 



70 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

disappointment ; yet I have not tbe presumption to suppose 
that all I have heard and read of Niagara is false or exag- 
gerated — that every expression of astonishment, enthusiasm, 
rjipture, is affectation or hyperbole. No ! it must be my 
own fault, Terni, and some of the Swiss cataracts leaping 
from their mountains, have affected me a thousand times 
more than all the immensity of Niagara. Oh, I could beat 
myself! and now there is no help! — the first moment, the 
first impression, is over — is lost ; though I should live a 
thousand years, long as Niagara itself shall roll, I can never 
see it again for the first time. Something is gone that 
cannot be restored. What has come over my soul and 
senses ? I am no longer Anna — I am metamorphosed — I am 
translated — I am an ass^s head, a clod, a wooden spoon, 
a fat weed growing on Lethe's bank, a stock, a stone, 
a petrifaction, — for have I not seen Niagara, the wonder of 
wonders; and felt — no words can tell what disappointment I 
But to take things in their order : We set off for the Falls 
yesterday morning, Avith the intention of spending the day 
there, sleeping, and returning the next day to Niagara. 
The distance is fourteen miles, by a road winding along the 
banks of the Niagara river, and over the Queenston heights ; 
and beautiful mu.st this land be in summer, since even now 
it is beautiful. The flower-garden, the trim shrubbery, the 
lawn, the meadow with its hedgerows, when frozen" up and 
wrapt in snow, always give me the idea of something not 
only desolate, but dead. Nature is the ghost of herself, and 
trails a spectral pall ; I always feel a kind of pity — a touch 
of melancholy — when at this season I have wandered among 
withered shrubs and buried flower-beds; but here in the 
wilderness, where nature is wholly independent of art, she 
does not die, nor yet mourn; she lies down to rest on the 
bosom of Winter, and the aged one folds her in his robe of 
ermine and jewels, and rocks her with his hurricanes, and 
hushes her to sleep. How still it was ! how calm, how vast 
the glittering white waste and the dark purple forests ! The 
sun shone out, and the sky was without a cloud; yet we saw 



MRS. JAMESO>f, 71 

few people, and for many miles the hissing of our sleigh, as 
we flew along upon our dazzling path, and the tinkling of 
the sleigh-bells, Avere the only sounds we heard. 

When we were within foui' or five miles of the Falls, 
I stopped the sleigh from time to time to listen for the roar 
of the cataracts, but the state of the atmosphere was not 
favourable for the transmission of sound, and the silence 
was unbroken. 

Such was the deep, monotonous tranquillity which pre- 
vailed on every side — so exquisitel}'^ pure and vestal-like, the 
robe in which all nature lay slumbering about us, I could 
scarce believe that this whole frontier is not only remarkable 
for the prevalence of vice — but of dark and desperate 
crime. 

Mr. A , who is a magistrate, pointed out to me a 

lonely house by the wayside, where, on a dark stormy night 
in the preceding winter, he had surprised and arrested 
a gang of forgers and coiners ; it was a fearful description. 
For some time my patience had been thus beguiled — im- 
patience and suspense much like those of a child at a theatre 
before the curtain rises. My imagination had been so 
impressed by the vast height of the Falls, that I was con- 
stantly looking in an upward direction, when, as we came 
to the brow of a hill, my companion suddenly checked the 
horses, and exclaimed, " The Falls \'' 

I was not, for an instant, aware of their presence ; we 
were yet at a distance, looking down upon them ; and I saw 
at one glance a flat extensive plain ; the sun having with- 
drawn its beams for a moment, there was neither light, nor 
shade, nor colour. In the midst were seen the two great 
cataracts, but merely as a feature in the wide landscape. 
The sound was by no means overpowering, and the clouds 
of spray, which Fanny Butler called so beautifully the 
" everlasting incense of the waters,^' now condensed ere 
they rose by the excessive cold, fell round the base of the 
cataracts in fleecy folds, just concealing that furious embrace 
of the waters above, and the waters below. All the associa- 



72 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

tions which in imagination I had gathered round the scene, 
its appalhng terrors, its soul-subduing beauty, power, and 
height, and velocity, and immensity, were all diminished 

in effect, or wholly lost. 

H; * * * 

I was quite silent — my very soul sank within me. On 
seeing my disappointment (written, I suppose, most legibly 
in my countenance,) my companion began to comfort me, 
by telling me of all those who had been disappointed on 
the first view of Niagara, and had confessed it. I did con- 
fess ; but I w^as not to be comforted. We held on our way 
to the Chfton Hotel, at the foot of the hill; most desolate 
it looked with its summer verandas and open balconies 
cumbered up with snow, and hung round with icicles — its 
forlorn empty rooms, broken windows, and dusty dinner- 
tables. The poor people who kept the house in winter had 
gathered themselves for warmth and comfort into a little 
kitchen, and, when we made our appearance, stared at us 
with a blank amazement, which showed what a rare thing 
was the sight of a visitor at this season. While the horses 
were cared for, I went up into the highest balcony, to com- 
mand a better view of the cataract ; a little Yankee boy, 
with a shrewd sharp face, and twinkling black eyes, acting 
as ray gentleman-usher. As I stood gazing on the scene, 
which seemed to enlarge upon my vision, the little fellow 
stuck his hands into his pockets, and looking up in my 
face, said, 

" You be from the old country, I reckon?^' 

" Yes." 

" Out over there, beyond the sea ?" 

" Yes." 

" And did you come all that way across the sea for these 
here Falls ?" ' 

" Yes." 

" My !" Then after a long pause, and eyeing me with 
a most comical expression of impudence and fun, he added, 
" Now do you know what them ere birds are, out yonder ?" 



MRS. JAMESON. 73 

pointing to a number of gulls wliicli were hovering and 
sporting amid the spray, rising, and sinking, and Avheeling 
arovmd, appearing to dehght in playing on the verge of this 
"hell of waters,^' and almost dipping their wings into the 
foam. My eyes were, in truth, fixed on these fair, fearless 
creatures, and they had suggested already twenty fanciful 
similitudes, Avhen I was roused by his question, 

" Those birds ?" said I, " Why, ivhat are they ?" 

" Why, them 's Eagles V 

" Eagles 1" it was impossible to help laughing. 

" Yes,'' said the urchin, sturdily ; " and I guess you have 
none of them in the old country V 

"Not many eagles, my boy; but plenty of gulls!" and 
I gave him a pretty considerable pinch by the ear.* 

"Ay!" said he, laughing; "well, now you be dreadful 
smart — smarter than many folks that come here !" 

We now prepared to walk to the Crescent Fall, and 
I bound some crampons to my feet, like those they use 
among the Alps, without which I could not for a moment 
have kept my footing on the frozen surface of the snow. As 
we approached the Table Rock, the whole scene assumed a 
wild and wonderful magnificence ; do\^'n came the dark 
green waters, hurrying with them over the edge of the preci- 
pice enormous blocks of ice brought down from Lake Erie. 
On each side of the Falls, from the ledges and overhanging 
clifi"s, were suspended huge icicles, some twenty, some thirty 
feet in length, thicker than the body of a man, and in colour 
of a paly green, like the glaciers of the Alps ; and all 
the crags below, which projected from the boiling, eddying 
waters, were encrusted, and in a manner built round with 
ice, which had formed into immense crystals, like basaltic 
columns, such as I have seen in the pictures of Staffa and 
the Giant's Causeway ; and every tree, and leaf, and branch, 
fringing the rocks and ravines, was wrought in ice. On tliem, 
and on the wooden buildings erected near the Table Rock, 
the spray from the cataract had accumulated, and formed 
* Eagles are very commonly seen about the Ya\h. — W. B. 
F 



71 DESCllIPTIONS OF NIAGARA- 

into the most beautiful crystals and tracery-work; they 
looked like houses of glass, welded and moulded into regular 
and ornamental shapes, and hung round with a rich fringe 
of icy points. Wherever we stood we were on unsafe ground, 
for the snow, when heaped up, as now, to the height of three 
or four feet, frequently slipped in masses from the bare rock, 
and on its surface the spray, for ever failing, was converted 
into a sheet of ice, smooth, compact, and glassy, on which 
I could not have stood a moment without my crampons. It 
was very fearful, and yet I could not tear myself away, but 
remained on the Table Rock, even on the very edge of it, till 
a kind of dreamy fascination came over me ; the continuous 
thunder, and might, and movement of the lapsing waters, 
held all my vital spirits bound up as by a spell. Then, as at 
last I turned away, the descending sun broke out, and an iris 
appeared below the American Fall, one extremity resting on 
a snoAV-mound ; and then it hung motionless in the midst of 
restless terrors, its beautiful but rather pale hues contrasting 
with the deathlike, colourless objects around ; it reminded me 
of the faint ethereal smile of a dying martyr. It was near 
midnight when we mounted our sleigh to return to the town 
of Niagara, and, as I remember, I did not utter a word 
during the whole fourteen miles. The air \) as still, though 
keen ; the snow lay around ; the whole earth seemed to slum- 
ber in a ghastly calm repose, but the heavens were wide 
awake. Then the avirora borealis was holding her levels, 
and dancirg, and flashing, and var3'ing through all shapes 
and all hues — pale amber, rose tint, blood red — and the stars 
shone out with a fitful, restless brilliance, and every now and 
then a meteor would shoot athwart the skies, or fall to earth, 
and all around me was wild and strange, and exciting — more 
like a fever-dream than a reality. 

To-day I am suffering, as might be expected, with pain 
and stiffness, unable to walk aci'oss the room ; but the pain 
Avill pass : and on the whole, I am glad I have made this 
excursion. Tlie Falls did not make on my mind the impres- 
sion I had anticipated, perliaps for that reiison, even because 



MAJOR HAMILTON. 75 

I had anticipated it. Under different circumstances it might 
have been otherwise ; hut " it was sung to me in my cradle/^ 
as tlie Germans say,* that I should hve to be disappointed — 
even in the Falls of Niagara. 



NIAGARA— BY MAJOR HAMILTON, 

AUTHOR OF " CYRIL THORNTON." 

( Extracted from his " Men and Manners in America, in 1833.") 

About twelve o^ clock, I found myself in Forsyth's hotel, 
a large and not uncomfortable house, about half-a-mile 
distant from the Great Horse-Shoe Fall. It stands upon 
a high level of table-laud, and from the upper balcony the 
Falls are distinctly visible. To a stranger visiting Niagara 
for the first time, I do not know that this circumstance is 
very desirable, and I confess that in my own case, the view 
carried with it something of disappointment. 

The truth is, that from Forsyth's you see the upper portion 
of the Fall ; but at least one half of the descent, the boiling 
caldron below, and the impenetrable mass of vapour with 
which it is sublimely and mysteriously encanopied, you do 
not see. No sooner had I reached the hotel, than the morn- 
ing, which had been lowering with dark and threatening 
clouds, set in with an absolute tempest of wind and rain. 
It was impossible to rest, however, before gazing on the great 
wonder which I had travelled so far to behold ; so, throwing 
on my cloak, I sallied forth, bidding defiance to the elements. 
The banks which descend to the bed of the river are very 
steep, and so slippery, that I encountered more than one 
tumble in ray pi'ogress. But this was nothing; and most 
amply was I repaid for all the troubles of my journey, when 
in a few minutes I fouud myself standing on the very brink 
of this tremendous yet most beautiful cataract. 

* " So was uur's in der wiege ge><iuigen," is a eonanon phrase to expre.'^s 
something to which we are seemingly predestined. 

F 2 



76 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

The spot from whicli I first beheld it was the Table Rock, 
and of the effect produced by the overwhelming sublimity 
of the spectacle, it is not possible to embody in words any 
adequate description. The spectator at first feels as if stricken 
hy cataleps3^ His blood ceases to flow, or rather is sent 
back in overpowering pressure on the heart. He gasps " like 
a drowning man,^^ to catch a mouthful of breath. "All 
elements of soul and sense/^ are absorbed in the magnitude 
and glory of one single object. The past and future are 
obliterated, and he stands mute and powerless, in the pre- 
sence of that scene of awful splendour on which his gaze is 
riveted. In attempting to convey to those who have never 
visited the Falls, any notion of the impression which they 
produce, I believe it is impossible to escape the charge of 
exaggeration. The penalty is one which I am prepared to 
pay. But the objects presented by Niagara are undoubtedly 
among those wliich exercise a permanent influence on the 
imagination of the spectator. The day — the hour — the 
minute — when his eye first rested on the Great Horse-Shoe 
Fall, is an epoch in the life of any man. He gazes on a 
scene of splendour and sublimity far greater than the 
unaided fancy of poet or painter ever pictured. He has 
received an impression which time cannot diminish, and 
death only can eltace. 

The results of that single moment will extend through 
a lifetime, enlarge the sphere of thought, and influence the 
whole tissue of his moral being. 

I remained on the Table llock till drenched to the skin, 
and still lingered in the hope that some flash of the light- 
ning — v/hich had become very vivid — might disclose the 
secrets of the cloudy and mj^sterious caldron, iuto which 
the eye vainly endeavoured to penetrate. But I was dis- 
appointed. Far overhead the fearful revelry of the elements 
still continued; but the lightning seemed to shun all approach 
to an object of sublimity equal to its own. 

My window in the hotel commanded a view of the Falls, 
and their deep and hollow roar was at all times distinctly 



MAJOR HAMILTON. 'Tif 

audible. I mention this because during the whole period 
of my stay, the circumstance was accompanied by serious 
annoyance. At night it was impossible to enjoy anything 
which could be called sleep. Whenever I closed my eyes, 
there was a torrent foaming before them. Amid the dark- 
ness of the midnight, I was still gazing on the Horse- Shoe, 
and the noise of the cataract, mingling with these visions of 
a perturbed imagination, contributed to keep up the delu- 
sion. ■ My dreams were of rapids and waterfalls, and the 
exhaustion produced by this state of continual fever became 
so great, that by day I often wandered to the quiet recesses 
of the forest, where, undisturbed by the din of waters, I might 
enjoy a comfortable nap. On the day after my arrival, the 
weather fortunately became fine, my hours were devoted to 
the Horse-Shoe, which I viewed from every favourable 
point. About half a mile below, there is a shantee or log 
tavern, where brandy is attainable by gentlemen of sluggish 
temperament, who, surrounded by such objects, still require 
the stimulus of alcohol ! From this tavern there is a circular 
wooden stair which leads down into the bed of the river, 
and on descending, I found myself at once immersed in 
a region of eternal moisture. By dint of scrambling along 
the debris of the overhanging rocks, I contrived to approach 
within a short distance of the Fall; and so powerful is the 
impression here produced, that a considerable time elapses 
before the spectator can command his faculties in a sufficient 
degree to examine its details. He stands amid a whirlwind 
of spray ; and the gloom of the abyss, the dark firmament of 
rock which threatens destruction to the intruder, the terrors 
of the descending torrent, the deep thunder of its roar, and 
the fearful convulsion of the waters into which it falls, con- 
stitute the features of a scene, the sublimity of which 
undoubtedly extends to the very verge of horror. 

The epithet of *' Horse-Shoe " is no longer applicable to 
the greater Fall. In the progress of those changes which 
are continually taking place from the attrition of the cataract, 
it has assumed a form which I should describe as that of a 



7o DESCllIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

semi-hexagon. The vast body of water in the centre of this 
figure, descends in one unbroken sheet of vivid green, and 
contrasts finely with the awful perturbation of the caldron. 
But towards either extremity it is different. The water 
there, at the very commencement of its dciscent, is shivered 
into particles inconceivably minute, and assumes a thousand 
beautiful forms of spires and pinnacles radiant with pris- 
matic colours. 

In the vast receptacle beneath, the water is so condminu- 
ted, and blended with nir carried down by the cascade — 
probably to the depth of many hundred feet — that none but 
substances of the greatest buoyancy could possibly float on it. 
The appearance of the surface is very remarkable. It is that 
of finely triturated silver, in which, though the particles are 
in close proximity, there is no amalgamation. The whole 
mass is in convulsive and furious agitation, and continues so 
until, having reached to a considerable distance, the commo- 
tion gradually diminishes, and the water reassumes its ordi- 
nary appearance. 

It is possible to advance a considerable distance behind 
the cascade, and I determined to accomplish the achieve- 
ment. Having marshalled my energies for the undertaking, 
I contrived to advance, but the tempest of dense spray 
became suddenly so violent as apparently to preclude the 
possibility of further progress. I was driven back several 
yards half-sufl'ocated and entirely blinded. But the guide 
encouraged me to proceed, and accordingly, Teucro duce, 
I made another and more successful eff'ort. Having pene- 
trated behind the Fall, the only footing was a ledge of rock 
about two feet broad, which was occasionally narrowed by 
projections in the face of the cliff. But even under these cir- 
cumstances tlie undertaking is one of difficulty, rather than 
of danger. A great portion of the air carried down by the 
cataract is immediately disengaged, and the consequence is, 
that an intruder has to encoimter a strong breeze which 
blows upwards from the caldron, and sometimes even dashes 
him with unpleasant violence against the rock along which 



MAJOR HAMILTON. 79 

he is scrambling. As a practical illustration of this, onr con- 
ductor plunged fearlessly down the precipitous rock to the 
very edge of the gulf, and was immediately blown bade, with 
little effort of his own, to our narrow pathway. At length, 
having advanced about Mty yards, the guide informed me 
that further progress was impossible. I had certainly no 
objection to retrace ray steps, for my lungs played with 
extreme difficulty, and the hurricane of wind and spray 
seemed to threaten utter extinction of sight. It was impos- 
sible, however, to depart without gazing on the wonder I had 
visited. Far overhead was a canopy of rock ; behind, the per- 
pendicular cliff; in front, the cascade — a glorious curtain — 
seemed to hang between us and the world. One's feelings 
were those of a prisoner. But never, surely, was there so 
magnificent a dungeon ! 

The noise of the great cataract is certainly far less than 
might be expected. Even at its very brink, conversation 
may be carried on without any considerable elevation of the 
voice. The sound is that of thunder in its greatest intensity, 
deep, unbroken, and unchanging. There is no hissing nor 
splashing ; nothing which breaks sharply on the ear ; nothing 
which comes in any degree into collision with the sounds of 
either earth or air. Nothing extrinsic can either add to, or 
diminisli its volume. It mingles with no other voice, and 
it absorbs none. It would be heard amid the roaring of a 
volcano, and yet does not drown the chirping of a sparrow. 

Visitors generally wdsh, however, for a greater crash on 
the tympanum, for something to stun or stupify, and return 
home complaining that Niagara is less noisy than Trenton, 
or the Cohoes. This is a mistake. The volume of sound 
produced by the Horse-Shoe Fall, is far greater than they 
ever heard before, or probably will ever hear again. When 
the atmosphere is in a condition fiwourable to act as a con- 
ductor of sound, it may be heard at a distance of fifteen or 
even twenty miles. A passenger in the coach, who lived six 
miles beyond Lewiston, assured me, that in particular states 
of the barometer, the noise was there distinctly perceptible. 



80 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

But it should be remembered, that the great body of sound 
is generated in a cavern far below the level of the surround- 
ing country, and fenced in on three sides by walls of perpen- 
dicular rock. The noise vibrates from side to side of this 
sunless cavity, and only a small portion escapes into the 
upper air, through the dense canopy of spray and vapour by 
which it is overhung. As an experiment, I employed a man 
to fire a musket below, while I stood on the Table Rock. 
The report was certainly audible, but scarcely louder than 
that of a popgun. 

The grandeur of the rapids is worthy of the cataracts in 
which they terminate. In the greater branch, the river 
comes foaming down with prodigious velocity, and presents 
a surface of agitated billows dashing wildly through the 
rocks and islands. This scene of commotion continues till 
within about thirty yards of the Fall. Then the great body 
of the stream resumes its tranquillity, and in solemn gran- 
deur descends into the cloudy and unfathomable abyss. 
Never was there a nobler prelude to a sublime catastrophe ! 

I at length crossed to the American side. If there were 
no Horse- Shoe Fall, the American would be the wonder of 
the world. Seen from below, it is very noble. The whole 
body of the water is at once shattered into foam, and comes 
down in a thousand feathery and fantastic shapes, which, in 
a bright sunshine, as I beheld them, were resplendently 
beautiful. 

But the form of the American Fall is unfortunate. A 
straight line is never favourable to beauty, and the cataract 
descends not into a dark abyss of convulsed and fsithomless 
waters, but amid fragments of rock, from which it again 
rushes onward to the main bed of the river. In short, a 
traveller from the Canadian shore has very little disposable 
admiration to lavish on this splendid object, and generally 
regards it with a cold and negligent ej^e. 

In the neighbourhood of the Falls, one can think of 
nothing else. They affect all thoughts and impulses^ the 
waking reverie, and the midnight dream. Every day of my 



MAJOR HAMILTON. 81 

stay was the same. Scarcely was my breakfast concludecl, 
when, putting a book in my pocket, I sallied down to the 
river, to lose and neglect the creeping hours of time, in tlie 
neighbourhood of the Horse-Shoe. About a quarter of a 
mile above, the stream had deposited a number of huge 
trees, and I employed several men to launch them suces- 
sively into the stream, while I stood on the extreme point of 
the Table Rock to observe their descent. One by one, the 
vast masses — each fit for the mast " of some great amrairal" 
— came floating down, sometimes engulfed in the foaming 
eddies, sometimes driven with fury against the rocks, and 
then rushing onward with increased velocity, till, reaching 
the smooth water, the forest giants were floated slowly 
onward to the brink of the precipice, when they were seen 
no more. 

Nothing which enters the awful caldron of the Fall, is ever 
seen to emerge from it. Of three gun-boats which, some 
years after the termination of the war, were sent over the 
Falls, one fragment only, about a foot in length, was ever 
discovered. It was found near Kingston, about a month 
.after the descent of the vessels. The country around Niagara 
is picturesque, and in a fine state of cultivation. English 
habits of agriculture evidently prevail. There is a greater 
appearance of neatness than I have seen anywhere in the 
United States. The fences are in excellent order, and the 
fields are not disfigured by stumps of decaying timber. The 
farms are in general large ; many containing two hundred 
acres of cleared laud, and their owners are reputed wealthy. 
I dined with one of these gentlemen, and found comfort 
combined with hospitality. 

Before quitting the subject of the Falls, I would willingly 
say something which may be of use to future visitors. It is 
usual with these persons to give the first day or two to the 
American Falls and Goat Island. This strikes me as bad 
policy. The American Fall is just fine enough to impair 
the subsequent impression of the Horse- Shoe. By adhering 
to the former routine, visitors come to the latter with an 



82 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

appetite partially sated, and the effect of the first burst of 
this subHme object is diminished. I would advise all tra- 
vellers, therefore, to proceed first to the Table Rock, and 
thus receive his first impression of the cataract. With regard 
to the time which a traveller should give to the Falls, it is 
impossible to fix. on any definite period. The imagination 
requires some time to expand itself, in order to take in the 
vastness of the objects. At first, the agitation of nerve is too 
great : a spectator can only gaze — he cannot contemplate. 
For some days the impression of their glory and magnitude 
will increase; and so long as this is the case, let him remain. 
His time could not be better spent : he is hoarding up a 
store of sublime memories for his whole future life. But 
intimacy — such is our nature — soon degenerates into famili- 
arity. He will at length begin to gaze on the scene around 
him with a listless eye. His imagination, in short, is palled 
with excitement. Let him watch for this crisis, and when- 
ever he perceives it, pack up his portmanteau and depart. 
Niagara can do nothing more for him, and it should be his 
object to bear with him the deepest and most intense im- 
pression of its glories. Let him dream of them, but return 
to them no more. A second visit coiild only tend to unsettle 
and efface the impression of the first. Were I within a mile 
of Niagara, I should turn my steps in the opposite direction. 
Every passing year diminishes our susceptibility ; and who 
would voluntarily bring to such objects a cold heart, and 
a faded imagination ? 



REMARKS ON NIAGARA.— BY T. R. PRESTON, IN 1842. 
Late of the Government Service at Toronto. 

But a work of nature's hand, immeasurably surpassing in 
its marvels the enchanting Lake of the Thousand Islands, and 
baffling alike adequate description or correct analysis of 
feeling, in regard to the impression it creates, yet remains to 
be spoken of. Need I say, that I allude to the mighty 



T. R. PRESTON. 83 

cataract of Niagara; or, as it is termed, pa?' ewcelhnce, "The 
Falls." 

It is far from my intention to attempt tlie delineation of 
an object which pens, far more able and practised than my 
own, have, at best, imperfectly succeeded in portraying ; but it 
would evince such signal disrespect to the monarch of cata- 
racts, and, moreover, constitute so marked a defect in a work 
having Canada for its theme, not to make incidental mention 
of this most striking feature of the country ^s aspect, that I 
feel it incumbent on me to say something on the matter. I 
have twice visited the Falls, and, like most other persons who 
have expressed an opinion on the subject, have found them 
to improve very much upon acquaintance, cultivated through 
the medium of close solitary studying, if I may use such a 
term in the sense in which I wish it to be understood. But 
I am unable to comprehend how, as is frequently averred, 
anything like disappointment can be felt, even by the most 
superficial observer, at a first view of them. 

The wildest revellings of the imagination could by no 
possibility conjure up any object serving in the least degree 
as a standard of comparison whereby they might be measured, 
and, therefore, the reality surpassing, as in effect it does, 
all possible conception, one is positively debarred the right to 
contrast present enjoyment Avith past anticipation. Were 
persons who complain of the Falls not realizing their expec- 
tations, required to answer the interrogation, " ivhat did you 
expect to see ?" by a minute description of the object they had 
mentally created, they would be sadly bewildered for an 
answer : and this is the only effectual means by which their 
inconsistency could be made apparent to themselves. 

The way in which I found that I could best comprehend 
the magnitude and character of this stupendous cataract, was 
by lying flat upon the ground in its near vicinity, mentally 
dissecting it whilst so recumbent, and forming combinations 
of the particles ad infinitum. I know not if this suggestion 
be a novel one : but in my own case, its adoption was the 
result of accident, as I found that when close upon them. 



84 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

I could not regard the Falls for many minutes together in an 
erect posture, without succumbing to an attracting influence, 
which I can compare only to the fascination exercised by the 
loadstone or the eye of the rattlesnake. I therefore adopted 
the alternative of prostrating myself (which answered the 
twofold purpose of reverence and convenience ), and was in 
suchwise enabled to contemplate, for hours together, without 
apprehension for my personal safety, the stupendous monu- 
ment of ages that stood reared before me. 

Another means of arriving at a right appreciation of the 
magnitude of the Falls, is to perch yourself on the summit of 
the tower which stands upon a ledge of rock below Goat 
Island, and to look down from thence, not upon the Falls, 
but upon the centre of the rapids, and thus, following with 
your eye the maddened waters, as they converge, seemingly 
grasped by the out-stretched fingers (gathering from all 
points) of a concealed giant's hand, towards the middle of 
the Chute, trace them until they are finally precipitated into 
the troubled vortex below. 

All immediately above, as also immediately beneath the 
sheet of water projected over, appears to be hurry, turmoil, 
wrath, and wild confusion ; in the midst of which the pro- 
pelled body, as if tacitly chiding the struggling waters in its 
rear for the display of so much petulant impatience, assumes 
to itself a calm, placid dignity and business-like air, implying 
that there exists no necessity for haste, and drops by means 
of its dense cubic weight, in close compact solidity to the 
bottom. It ai:)peared to me that in thus contemplating the 
Falls, there are many valuable moral lessons to be learned ; 
not the least prominent of which are — arrangement, design, 
and the preservation of order in the midst of seeming con- 
fusion. 

As regards the realization of grand scenic effect in the 
appearance of the Falls, I fully concur in the opinion I have 
seen expressed, that the best means of inducing it consist in 
crossing the river at the ferry, to within about one-fourth of 
the distance from the American shore, and in so directing 



T. R. PRESTON. 85 

your gaze from such point of view (never heeding the tossing, 
nor the saturation consequent on remaining in such a 
position,) as to take in the American and British Falls together, 
Goat Island, which lies between them, being shut in by the 
oblique line of vision. 

The imaginary fabric you thus raise, is the complete side 
and the half-elliptic end of an immense crystalline hall ; and 
you have only to people it with corresponding inhabitants, 
supposed to be dimly visible through the mist, to complete the 
delusion. On the occasion of my first visit to the Falls, 
which chanced to be just after the opening of the navigation, 
they still retained some portion of their wintry dress. On 
the second, on the contrary, their environing adornments were 
green trees and foliage; but it is to my mind doubtful even 
now, if these, after all, were so much in unison with the 
peculiar chaiacter of the main object, as the previous accu- 
mulated snow and clustering icicles. 

The mingled feelings of awe, wonder, and admiration, 
which one experiences at sight of the Falls, how often soever 
they may be visited, is speedily succeeded (at least I, in 
common with many others, have found it so), by a wish to be 
alone with them, in order to ponder over, without the fear of 
interruption, their varied claims to attention, as well as to 
revel in the peculiar train of meditation which they have a 
tendency to awaken. 

A sad accident had happened at the Falls just before my 
arrival there last summer, in an avalanche of rocks from 
Goat Island having crushed to death an American gentleman 
(a Dr. Hungerford, if I remember rightly), who chanced 
unfortunately to be beneath them. 

The guide informed me with a dolorous accent, that this 
occurrence had also operated prejudicially to his interests, as 
people were deterred in consequence (and not unnaturally), 
from venturing as fearlessly as formerly within the space of 
the Horse-Shoe Fall curtained by the sheet of water. 

To facilitate the means of progress over the precarious 
causeway of the narrow pass, he informed me that it was 



86 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

intended to affix to tlie wall of the rock^ iron cramps, sup- 
porting a railing, whereby the visitor might hold on ; 
and certainly much praise would be due to those whose 
ingenuity and daring should succeed in perfecting such a 
peculiar piece of smithery. It is only surprising that a greater 
number of accidents does not happen at the Falls beyond 
such as actually take place, since the rocks on every side are 
gradually detaching themselves from their old positions, while 
the famed Table Rock itself, judging by the Avide fissures it 
exhibits, appears about to follow the general example. 

The poetry of the Cataract is unquestionably seriously 
impaired by the prose of every-day life pervading its vicinity; 
but how much soever this innovation may be a cause for 
lamentation to the admirer of nature in her wildest solitude, 
it is at least conducive to his individual comfort nud con- 
venience. 



REMARKS OF HENNEPIN, TONTI, HONTAN, ETC.— 1678.* 

Father Hennepin, who visited this place in December, 1678, 
thus describes the Falls : — " Betwixt the Lakes Ontario and 
Erie, there is a vast and prodigious cadence of water, which 
falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, inso- 
much that the universe does not afford its parallel. ^Tis true, 
Italy and Suedeland boast of some such things, but we may 
well say that they are but sorry patterns, when compared with 
this of which we now speak. At the foot of this horrible 
precipice, Ave meet Avith the river Niagara, Avhich is not above 
a quarter of a league broad, but is AVonderfuUy deep in some 
places. It is so rapid above this descent, that it violently 
hurries doAvn the Avild beasts while endeavouring to pass it to 
feed on the other side, they not being able to Avithstand the 
force of its current, Avhich inevitably casts them headlong 
above six hundred feet high. 

* These remarks on Niagara arc considered the earliest ou record. 



EARLIEST DISCOVERIES. 87 

" This wonderful downfall is compounded of two great 
cross-streams of water, and tAvo Falls, with an isle sloping 
along the middle of it. The waters which fall from this hor- 
rible precipice, do foam and boil after the most hideous 
manner imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more ter- 
rible than that of thunder ; for when the wind blows out of 
the south, their dismal roaring may be heard more than 
fifteen leagues ofP. 

*' The river Niagara having thrown itself down this incre- 
dible precipice, continues its impetuous course for two leagues 
together, to the Great Rock* above mentioned, with an inex- 
pressible rapidity ; but having passed that, its impetuosity 
relents, gliding along more gently for other two leagues, till 
it arrives at the Lake Ontario, or Frontenac. 

" Any barque or greater vessel may pass from the Fort to 
the foot of this huge rock, above mentioned. This rock lies 
to the westward, and is cut off from the land by the river 
Niagara, about two leagues further down than the Great 
Fall ; for which two leagues the people are obliged to trans- 
port their goods over-land ; but the way is very good, and the 
trees are but few, chiefly firs and oaks. 

" From the Great Fall unto this rock, which is to the west 
of the river, the two brinks of it are so prodigious high, that 
it would make one tremble to look steadily upon the water, 
rolling along with a rapidity not to be imagined. Were it 
not for this vast cataract, which interrupts navigation, they 
might sail with barques or greater vessels more than four 
hundred and fifty leagues, crossing the Lake of Huron, and 
reaching even to the further end of the Lake Illinois ; which 
two lakes we may easily say are little seas of fresh water. 

'' After we had rowed above an hundred and forty leagiies 
upon the Lake Erie, by reason of the many windings of the 
bays and creeks which we were forced to coast, we passed by 
the Great Fall of Niagara, and spent half a day in consider- 
ing the wonders of that prodigious cascade. 

" I could not conceive how it came to pass, that four great 
" It is not known wliat rock the writer here alludes to. 



88 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

lakeSj the least of which is four Imudred leagues in compass, 
should empty themselves one into another, and then all 
centre and discharge themselves at this Great Fall, and yet 
not drown good part of America. What is yet more surpris- 
ing, the ground from the mouth of the Lake Erie down to 
the Great Fall, appears almost level and flat. It is scarce 
discernible that there is the least rise or fall for six leagues 
together. The more than ordinary swiftness of the stream 
is the only thing which makes it to be observed. And that 
which makes it yet the stranger is, that for two leagues 
together, below the Fall, towards Lake Ontario, or Frontenac, 
the lands are as level as they are above it towards the Lake 
Erie. 

'' Our surprise was still greater when we observed there 
was no mountain within two good leagues of this cascade ; 
and yet the vast quantity of water which is discharged by 
these four fresh seas, stops or centres here, and so falls above 
six hundred feet deep down into a gulf, which one cannot 
look upon without horror. Two other great outlets or falls 
of water, which are on the two sides of a small sloping island, 
which is in the midst, fall gently and without noise, and so 
glide away quietly enough; but when this prodigious quan- 
tity of water of which I speak, comes to the Fall, there is 
such a din and such a noise, more deafening than the loudest 
thunder. 

" The rebounding of these waters is so great, that a sort 
of cloud arises from the foam of it, which is seen hanging 
over this abjss, even at noon-day, when the sun is at its 
height. In the midst of summer, when the weather is hottest, 
they rise above the tallest firs, and other great trees, which 
grow on the sloping island, Avliich makes the two falls of 
water that I spoke of. 

" I wished an hundred times, that somebody had been with 
us, Avho could have described the wonders of this prodigious, 
frightful Fall, so as to give the reader a just and natural idea 
of it ; such as might satisfy him, and cause in him an admi- 
ration of this prodigy of nature, as great as it deserves. 



EARLIEST DISCOVERIES. 89 

" We must call to mind what I observed of it in the bedu- 
ning of ray voyage. From the mouth of the Lake Erie to the 
Great Fall, are reckoned six leagues, as I have said, which is 
the continuation of the great river of St. Lawrence, Avhich 
arises out of the four lakes above mentioned. The river, you 
must needs think, is very rapid for these six leagues, because 
of the vast discharge of waters which fall into it out of the 
said lakes. The lands which lie on both sides of it to the east 
and west, are all level from the Lake Erie to the Great Fall. 
Its banks are not steep, on the contrarj^, the water is almost 
always level with the land. It is very certain, that the ground 
toward the Fall is lower, by the more than ordinary swiftness 
of the stream ; and yet it is not perceivable to the eye for six 
leagues above. 

" After it has run thus violently for six leagues, it meets 
with a small sloping island, about half a quarter of a league 
long, and near three himdred feet broad, as well as one can 
guess by the eye ; for it is impossible to come at it in a canoe 
of bark, the waters run with that force. The isle is full of 
cedar and fir ; but the land of it lies no higher than that on 
the banks of the river. It seems to be all level, even as far 
as the two great cascades that make the main Fall. 

" The two sides of the channels, w^hich are made by the 
isle, and run on both sides of it, overflow almost the very 
surface of the earth of the said isle, as well as the land that 
lies on the banks of the river to the east and west, as it runs 
south and north. But we must observe, that at the end of 
the isle, on the side of the two Great Falls, there is a sloping 
rock which reaches as far as the great gulf, into Avhicli the 
said water falls, and yet the rock is not at all wetted by the 
two cascades, which fall on both sides, because the two 
torrents which are made by the isle, thro\v themselves watli 
a prodigious force, one towards the east and the other towards 
the west, from off the end of the isle, where the Great Fall 
of all is. 

" After these two torrents have thus run by the two sides 

G 



90 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

of the isle, they cast their waters all of a sudden, down into 
the gulf by two Falls ; which waters are pushed so vio- 
lently on by their own ay eight, and so sustained by the swift- 
ness of the motion, that they do not wet the rock in the least. 
And here it is that they tumble down into an abyss above six 
hundred feet in depth. 

" The waters that flow on the side of the east, do not throw 
themselves with that violence as those that fall on the west ; 
the reason is, because the rock at the end of the island rises 
something more on this side than it does on the west ; and so 
the waters being supported by it somewhat longer than they 
are on the other side, are carried the smoother off; but on 
the west, the rock sloping more, the waters, for want of 
a support, become the sooner broken, and fall with greater 
precipitation. Another reason is, the lands that lie on the 
west are lower than those that lie on the east. We also 
observed that the waters of the Fall that is to the west, made 
a sort of a square figure as they fell, which made a third 
cascade, less than the other two, which fell betwixt the south 
and north. 

" And because there is a rising ground which lies before 
those two cascades to the north, the gulf is much larger 
there than to the east. Moreover, we must observe, that 
from the rising ground that lies over-against the last two 
Falls, which are the west of the main Fall, one may go down 
as far as the bottom of this terrible gulf. The author of this 
discovery was down there, the more narrowly to observe the 
fall of these prodigious cascades. From thence we could dis- 
cover a spot of ground, which lay under the fall of water 
Avhich is to the east, big enough for four coaches to drive 
abreast, without being wet ; but because the ground which is 
to the east of the sloping rock, where the first Fall empties 
itself into the gulf, is very steep and perpendicular, it is 
impossible for a man to get down on that side, into the place 
where the four coaches may go abreast, or to make his way 
through such a quantity of water as falls towards the gulf; 



EARLIEST DISCOVERIES. 91 

SO that it is very probable, that to this dry place it is that tlie 
rattlesnakes retire, b}' certain passages which they find under 
ground. 

" From tlie end of this island it is that these two great 
falls of w^ater, as also the third but now mentioned, throw 
themselves, after a most surprising manner, down into a 
dreadful gulf, six hundred feet and more in depth. I have 
already said, that the waters which discharge themselves at 
the cascade to the east, fall with lesser force; whereas those 
to the west tumble all at once, making two cascades, one 
moderate, the other very violent and strong, which at last 
make a kind of crotchet or square figure, falling from south 
to north, and west to east. After this they rejoin the waters 
of the other cascade that falls to the east, and so tumble 
down altogether, though unequally, into the gulf, with all the 
violence that can be imagined from a fall of six hundred feet, 
which makes the most frightful cascade in the world. 

''After these waters have thus discharged themselves into 
the dreadful gulf, they begin to resume their course, and con- 
tinue the great river St. Lawrence for two leagues, as far as 
the three mountains which are on the east side of the river, 
and the great rock which is on the west, and lifts itself three 
fathoms above the water, or thereabouts. The gulf into 
which these waters are discharged, continues itself thus two 
leagues together, between a chain of rocks, flowing with a 
prodigious torrent, which is bridled and kept in by the rocks 
that lie on each side of the river. 

" Into this gulf it is that these several cascades empty 
themselves, with a violence equal to the height from whence 
they fall, and the quantity of water which they discharge ; 
and hence arise those deafening sounds, that dreadful roaring 
and bellowing of the Avaters, which drown the loudest 
thunder, as also the perpetual mists that hang over the gulf, 
and rise above the tallest pines that are in the little isle so 
often mentioned. After a channel is again made at the 
bottom of this dreadful ftdl, by the chain of rocks, and filled 
by that prodigious quantity of waters which are continually 

G 2 



92 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

falling, the river of St. Lawrence resumes its course. But 
with that violence, and its waters beat against the rocks with 
so prodigious a force, that it is impossible to pass even in a 
canoe of bark, though in one of them, a man may venture 
safe enough upon the most rapid streams, by keeping close 
to the shore. 

" These rocks, as also the prodigious torrent, last for two 
leagues ; that is, from the great Falls, to the Three Mountains 
and Great Rock; but it then begins insensibly to abate, and 
the land to be again almost on a level with the water, and so 
it continues as far as the Lake Ontario, or Frontenac. 

" "When one stands near the Fall, and looks down into the 
dreadful gulf, one is seized with horror, and the head turns 
round, so that one cannot look long or steadfastly upon it. 
But this vast deluge beginning insensibly to abate, and even 
to fall to nothing about the Three Mountains, the waters of 
the river St. Lawrence begin to glide more gently along, and 
to be almost upon a level with the lands ; so that it becomes 
navigable again as far as the Lake Frontenac, over which we 
pass to come to the new canal, which is made by the discharge 
of its waters. Then we enter again upon the river St. Law- 
rence, which not long after makes that which they call the 
Long Fall, an hundred leagues from Niagara. 

" I have often heard talk of the cataracts of the Nile, 
which make the people deaf that live near them. I know not 
if the Iroquois, vf ho formerly inhabited near this Fall, and 
lived upon beasts which from time to time are borne down 
by the violence of its torrent, withdrew themselves from its 
neighbourhood, lest they should likewise become deaf, or out 
of the continual fear they were in of rattlesnakes, Avhich are 
very common in this place during the great heats, and lodge 
in the holes along the rocks as far as the mountains, which 
lie two leagues lower." 

The writer, after considerable inquiry and personal exami- 
nation, is unable to determine what Father Hennepin means 
by the Three Mountains, and the Great Rock; and he 
cannot believe that the Falls were ever six hundi-ed feet 



EARLIEST DISCOVERIES. 93 

high, as is repeatedly stated in the book. But Fatlier 
Hennepin's description is, in the main, remarkably correct; 
and estal)lishes the fact, that in 1678, there were three dis- 
tinct Falls as they are now, and that the Fall on the Canada 
side exliibited then somewhat of the appearance of a horse- 
shoe. His description too, of the islands, shores, &c., corres- 
ponds with their present appearance. 

In a Avork written by the Chevalier de Tonti,* who was of 
the party with Father Hennepin, there is a description of the 
Falls, and of Niagara river, corresponding with, and corrobo- 
rating Flennepin's, but with the addition of no important 
facts. 

Baron La Hontan,t who visited this Cataract in May, 
1688, thus describes it : " As for the waterfall of Niagara, it 
is seven or eight hundred feet high, and half a league broad. 
Towards the middle of it we descry an island that leans 
towards the precipice, as if it were ready to fall. All the 
beasts that cross the water within half a quarter of a league 
above the unfortunate island, are sucked in by the force of 
the stream. And the beasts and fish that are thus killed by 
the prodigious Fall, serve for food to fifty Iroquese, who are 
settled above two leagues off, and take 'em out of the water 
with their canows. Between the surface of the water that 
shelves off prodigiously, and the foot of the precipice, three 
men may cross in abreast, without any other damage than a 
sprinkling of some few drops of water." 

In the Philosophical Transactions, for 1722, there is a 
description of the Falls, given by Monsieur Borasseau, avIio 
had visited them at seven different times. He says, that the 
Governor of Canada had, on the previous year, "ordered his 
own son, with three other officers, to survey Niagara, and 

* Entitled, " Relations de la Louisane et dii Fleuve Mississippi, etc. 1720, 
Amsterdam, par le Gouverneiir de Tonti, Gouvernem- dii Fort Saint Louis, aux 
Illinois." 

t His book is entitled, " New Voyages to North America, etc. Written in 
French, by the Baron La Hontan, Lord Lieutenant of the French Colony at 
Placentia, in New-Foundland, at that time in England. Done into English, the 
second edition. London, 1735." 



94 DESCllIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

take the exact height of the cataract^ which they accordingly 
did, with a stoue of half a hundred weight, and a large cod- 
line, and found it, upon a perpendicular, twenty-six fathoms," 
or one hundred and twenty-six feet. 

These extracts may not be considered of much value, 
except by those persons who have a curiosity to learn some- 
thing about the Falls, as they appeared in a former age. 

There are five places between the Falls and Lewiston, 
where persons can descend from the top of the hank to the 
•water, viz : from the end of Mr. Childs' and also Mr. Grave's 
farm, at the Whirlpool, at the Devil's Hole, and from the 
end of Mr. Colt's farm. There are also, on the Canada side, 
a number of places where visitors can descend safely to the 
water's edge. From these places under the bank, the river- 
scenery appears transcendently beautiful and sublime, and 
the rapids strike the beholder with more amazement, if 
possible, than tlie Falls themselves. Here may be found in 
reality, 

" A bappj rural seat of various view ; 

Flowers of all hue, 

Umbi'ageous grots and caves 
Of cool recess, o'er wliieli the mantling vine 
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps 
Luxuriant." 

The top of the bank on either side, near Brock's Monu- 
ment, affords a delightful and almost boundless prospect of 
the country and lake below. The unrivalled Niagara is 
traced to its outlet, guarded by two opposite forts, and bear- 
ing sloops and steamboats into the glossy lake ; wdiile the 
mighty expanse of plains and waters presents a scene so 
picturesque and enchanting, that the traveller leaves his 
position with reluctance. From Lewiston to Lake Ontario, 
seven miles, the river is deep, smooth, and navigable for 
boats and vessels of every description; and Lewiston, being 
the head of navigation, is the principal landing-place for the 
steamboats that run on Lake Ontario. 

At the mouth of the Niagara river, on the Ameri 
stand the villages of Youngstown and Foi't Niagara; and 



TABLE ROCK STAIRCASE, 95 

on the Canada sicle5 the viUages of Niagara and Fort 
George. 

The quantity of water constantly pouring over the Falls, 
and passing into the lake, is computed, from probable data, at 
670,250 tons per minute : but Dr. D wight computes it, from 
the depth, width, and velocity of the current, at more than 
eighty-five millions of tons per hour ; and b}' another calcu- 
lation, supposing a swifter current, at 102,093,750 tons per 
hour. Darby computes it at 1,672,704,000 cubic feet per 
hour. These results are somewhat different, bvit the first is 
probably nearest the truth. Dr. D wight supposes, in one 
calculation, a current of five, and in the other, of six miles 
per hour, the least of which is undoubtedly too much. The 
prodigious torrent of waters, and the tremendous rush and 
noise of the falling cataract, seems to put at defiance all 
attempts at calculation. 



TABLE ROCK STAIIICASE.— BARNETT'S MUSEUM. 

At the Falls, near Table Rock, is a spiral staircase, con- 
structed for the purpose of enabling visitors to descend and 
pass behind the sheet of water, to Termination Rock. The 
entrance behind the great sheet looks somewhat formidable, 
and sometimes deters visitors from making the attempt ; but 
when it is accomplished, which is frequently done by ladies, 
the views behind this immense sheet are awfully sublime and 
terrific, and will fully repay the adventurous lover of the 
wonderful in nature, for the thorough drenching which he 
will receive, and which constitutes all the danger of the 
attempt. 

Mr. Starkey, who keeps an excellent house of refreshment, 
and a cabinet of minerals, here, is very accommodating to 
visitors, and when desired, furnishes them with a dress and 
guide to facilitate their passage behind the Falls. This place 
is extensively known, and much frequented. 

A few rods from this staircase, and very beautifully situated, 



96 DESCKIPTIONS Ol' NlAGAllA. 

is Mr. Barnett's Museum of natural and artificial curiosities; 
— an establishment well worthy of patronage. The rooms 
are arranged very tastefully, so as to represent a forest scene, 
and contain upwards of 5,000 specimens of various kinds 
and descriptions. There are bipeds and quadrupeds ; birds, 
fishes, insects, reptiles, shells, minerals, and Indian curiosities ; 
all regulated to delight the eye, improve the understanding, 
and mend the heart. Of the birds, beasts, fishes, and 
insects, several hundred species were caught in the vicinity of 
the Falls. The noblest eagles of the land delight to hover 
around the Falls ; and here they are frequently killed, 
stuffed, and offered for sale. A large collection of living 
rattlesnakes may also be seen here. Mr. Barnett also keeps 
an excellent house of refreshment, and a large assortment 
of Indian curiosities and geological specimens for sale, and 
is very polite and attentive to visitors. 

One of the very best general views of the Falls is to be 
obtained from the piazzas of this museum, and a view through 
a prism, which is kept there, is extremely beautiful and 
interesting:. 



NIAGARA.— BY (1. IIEIUOT, ESQ., liN 1839. 

The Falls of Niagara surpass in sublimity every description 
which the powers of language can afford of that celebrated 
scene, the most wonderful and awful which the habitable 
world presents. Nor can any drawing convej^ an adequate 
idea of the magnitude and depth of the precipitated waters. 
By the interposition of two islands, the river is separated into 
three Falls; that of the Great Horse-Shoe on the west 
British side, so denominated by its form ; and those of Fort 
Slauper and Montmorenci, on the eastern or American side. 
The large island is about four hundred yards in width, and 
the small island about ten yards. The three Falls, with the 
islands, describe a crescent, and the river beneath becomes 
considerably contracted. The breadth of the whole, at the 



G. HEllIOT, 97 

pitch of the waters, including the curvatures which the 
violence of the current has produced in the Horse-Shoe, and 
in the American Falls, may he estimated at a mile and a 
quarter, and the altitude of the Table Rock from whence the 
precipitation commences, is one hundred and fifty feet. Along 
the boundaries of the river, and behind the Falls, the elevated 
and rocky banks are everywhere excavated by sulphureous 
springs, the vitriolic acid uniting with the limestone rock, and 
forming plaster of paris, which is here and there scattered 
amid the masses of stone which compose the beach beneath. 
These excavations extend in many places to a distance of 
fifty feet underneath the summit of the bank. 

Casting the eye from the Table Rock into the basin 
beneath, the effect is awfully grand, magnificent, and sub- 
lime. No object intervening between the spectator and that 
profound abyss, he ajipears suspended in the atmosphere. 

The lofty banks and in]mense woods which environ this 
stupendous scene, the irresistible force, the rapidit}^ of motion 
displayed by the rolling clouds of foam, the uncommon bril- 
liancy and variety of colours and shades, the ceaseless 
intumescence, and swift agitation of the dashing waves below 
— the solemn and tremendous noise, with the volumes of 
vapour darting upwards into the air, Avhich the simultaneous 
report and smoke of a thousand cannon could scarcely equal, 
irresistibly tend to impress the imagination with such a train 
of sublime sensations, as few other combinations of natural 
objects are capable of producing, and which a dread lest the 
treacherous rock should crumble beneath the feet, by no means 
contributes to diminish. 

From a settlement called Birch's Mills, on level ground 
below the bank, the rapids are displayed to great advantage ; 
they dash from one rocky declivity to another, and hasten 
with foaming fury to the precipice. The bank along whose 
summit the carriage - road extends, affords many rich, 
although partial views of the Falls and rapids. They are from 
hence partly excluded from the eye by trees of difl'erent 



98 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

kinds^ such as the oak, the ash, tlie beech, fir, sassafras, cedar, 
walnut, and tulip trees. 

About two miles further down the side of the river, at a 
situation called Bender's, an extensive and general prospect 
of the Falls, Avith the rapids and islands, is at once developed 
to the eye of the spectator. On descending the bank, which 
in several places is precipitous and difficult, and on emerging 
from the woods at its base, a wouderful display of grand and 
stupendous objects is at once expanded to the view. From 
amid immense fragments of rock, and lacerated trees which 
have descended in the current of the waters, the eye is 
directed upwards towards the Falls, that of Fort Slauper 
being on the left, and the Great Horse-Shoe Fall immediately 
in front. On the right is a lofty bank profusely covered with 
a diversity of foliage, beyond which the naked excavated rock 
discloses itself. 

As the river here contracts to the breadth of about half a 
mile, the Fall on the American side becomes nearest to the 
eye, and its waters tumble over a rock, which appears to be 
perpendicular, and nearly in a straight line across to the 
island, the curvatures being, from the point now described, 
not perceptible. The rock is, however, excavated, and as the 
pitch has been worn, from continual abrasion by the Fall, into 
a serrated shape, whence the masses of foam pour down in 
ridges which retain their figure from the summit to the 
bottom. Numbers of stones Avhich have been torn away 
from the precipice, are accumulated throughout the whole 
extent below, and receive the weighty and effulgent clouds of 
broken waters, which again dash from thence into the 
basin. 

The Horse-Shoe Fall is distinguished not only by its 
vastness, but by the variety of its colours. The waters at 
the edge of the Table Rock are of a brownish cast ; further on, 
of a brilliant white ; and in the centre, where the fluid body 
is greatest, a transjDarent green appears. Around the pro- 
jection, which is in the form of a horse-shoe, the water is of 
a snowy whiteness. A cloud of thick vapoar constantly arises 



G. liLRIOT. 99 

from tlie centre^ part of which becomes dissolved in the 
higher regions of the atmosphere, and a part spreads itself in 
dews over the neighbouring fields. This cloud of vapour has 
frequently, in clear weather, been observed from Lake 
Ontario, at the distance of ninety miles from the Falls. 

The bed of the river is so deep, that it undei'goes not such 
a degree of agitation as the reception of those bodies of water 
pouring down into it might be supposed to produce. Except 
at places immediately underneath each of the Falls, there 
are no broken billows ; the stream is comparatively tranquil, 
but the water continues for a long way down its course to 
revolve in numerous whirlpools. Its colour is a deep blue ; 
quantities of foam float upon the surface, and almost cover a 
large bay formed between projecting points^ containing 
several insulated rocks. 

Proceeding along- the beach to the basin of the Table 
Rock, the distance is about two miles, and the way thither is 
over masses of stone which have been torn from the bank 
above, and over trees which have been carried down the 
Falls, and have been deposited in the spring by bodies of ice, 
in situations above twenty feet in height from the level of the 
river. 

The projection of the Table Hock, it has been remarked, is 
fifty feet, and between it and the Falls a lofty and irregular 
arch is formed, which extends under the pitch, almost with- 
out interruption, to the island. To enter this cavern, bounded 
by the waters and rock, and to turn the view towards the 
Falls, the noise, the motion, and the vast impulse and weight 
exhibited, seem to cause everything around them to tremble, 
and at once occupy and astonish the mind. Sudden and 
frequent squalls, accompanied by torrents of rain, issue from 
this gloomy cavern ; the air drawn down by the waters is in 
part reverberated by the rock, and thus discharges itself. 

At this situation is illustrated the effect of an immense 
mass of waters thrown from a prodigious height, after being 
forcibly propelled. The projectile counteracted by the gravi- 
tative power, obliges the falling body to describe at first an 



100 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

ellipse, and then to assume the perpendicular direction in 
which it is received into the basin. 

The salient groups in which, with gradations almost 
regular, the tumbling waters are precipitated, excite the awe 
and admiration of the spectator ; the eye follows with delight 
the masses of lustrous foam varied by prismatic hues, and 
forming a wide and resplendent curtain. 

There are in the village of Chippawa some mercantile 
store-houses, and two or three taverns. The waters of the 
Chippawa are always of a deep brown colour, and are very 
unwholesome if used for culinary purposes. 

They enter the St. Lawrence about two miles above tlie 
Falls, and although they be frequently broken, and rush into 
many rapids in their course thither, they seem obstinately^ to 
resist being mixed with the purer waters of that flood, and 
retain their colour in passing over the precipice. The foam 
produced in theii' precipitation is of a brownish hue, and 
forms the edge of the sheet which tumbles over the Table 
Rock, Their weight and the depth of the descent, mingle 
them effectually with the waters in the basin beneath. The 
colour of the Chippawa is deri^ed from that river passing 
over a level country, in many places swampy, and from quan- 
tities of decayed trees which tinge it with their bark. It is 
also impregnated with bituminous matter, which prevents it, 
until it has suffered the most violent agitation and separation 
of particles, from incorporating with the more transparent 
and uncorrupted stream of the St. Lawrence. To those who 
are admirers of the picturesque beauties of nature, it will be 
almost unnecessary to apologize for the prolixity of descrip- 
tion Avliich I have here given. The subject upon which we 
have so long dwelt, is at once noble and unique. Let us 
therefore attempt to pursue it still further, although without 
the hope of being able to do it justice. 

To descend the perpendicular cliff on the eastern bank, is 
attended with some degree of peril. Few of the roots and 
vines which formerh^ hung dowuiwards from the trees, any 
longer remain. In descending the craggy steep, the adven- 



G. HEllIOT. 101 

turer must cling to the rock with liis hands and feet, moving 
onward with great cavition. On his arrival at the base of the 
cliff, he is struck by a development of scenery yet more 
awfully stupendous than that which had before been pre- 
sented to his contemplation. Here nature, agitated by the 
struggles of contending elements, assumes a majestic and 
tremendous wildness of form. Here terror seems to hold his 
habitation. Here brilliancy, profundity, motion, sound, and 
tumultuous fury, mingle throughout the scene. The waters 
appear to fall from tlie sky with such impetuosity, that a por- 
tion is thrown back in clouds of vapour. The mind, expanded 
by the immensity and splendour of the surrounding objects, 
is disposed to give issue to the sensations of awe and wonder 
by which she is impressed, in ejaculations similar to that of 
the Psalmist of Israel, " Great and marvellous are thy 
works V The huge fragments of rock Avhich have been 
thrown from the summit of the precipice by the irresistible 
strength of the torrent, and which have fallen upon each 
other in towering heaps beneath, suggest to the imagination 
an idea of what may take place previous to the general con- 
summation of this terrestrial scene, when ancient monu- 
ments of marble, under which princes of the world have for 
ages slept, shall be burst asunder, and torn up from their 
foundations. 

Can so vast, so rapid, and so continual a waste of water 
never drain its sources ? These are inexhaustible ; and the 
body wdiich throws itself down these cliffs, forms the sole 
discharge of four immense inland seas. The effect produced 
by the cold of winter on these sheets of water thus rapidly 
agitated, is at once singular and splendid. Icicles of great 
thickness and length are formed along the banks, from the 
springs which flow over them. The sources, impregnated 
with sulphur, which drain from the hollow of the rocks, are 
congealed into transparent blue columns. Caves are formed 
by the spray, particularly on the American side, which have 
in several places large fissures disclosing the interior, com- 
posed of clusters of icicles, similar to the pipes of an organ. 



102 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Some parts of the Falls are consolidated into fluted columns, 
and the river above is seen partially frozen. The boughs of 
the trees in the surrounding woods are hung with the purest 
icicles, formed from the spray, and, reflecting in every direc- 
tion the raj'^s of the sun, produce a variety of prismatic hues, 
and a lustre almost too refulgent to be long sustained by the 
powers of vision. 



SUMMER AND WINTER SCENERY.— RIVER BELOW THE FALLS. 

The surrounding scenery on both sides of the river is in good 
keeping with the magnificence of the Falls. It is just what 
it should be, — grand, stx'iking, and unique. By most visitors 
it is only seen in summer. But in the winter it is also inimit- 
able and indescribably beautiful. The trees and shrubbery 
on Goat and other islands, and on the banks of the river near 
the Falls, are covered with transparent sleet, presenting an 
appearance of " icy brilliants,^^ or rather of millions of glitter- 
ing chandeliers of all sizes and descriptions, and giving one 
a most vivid idea of fairy-land. 

" For evei'y shrub and every blade of gi-ass, 

And every pointed thorn, seems wrought in glass ; 
The friglited birds the rattling branches shun, 
Which wave and glitter in the distant sun." 

The scene presents a splendid counterpart to Goldsmith's 
description of the subterranean grottos of Pares and Anti- 
paros. The mist from the Falls freezes upon the trees so 
gradually and to such thickness, that it often bears a most 
exact resemblance to alabaster ; and this, set off by the 
dazzling colours of the rainbows that arch the river from 
twenty different points, seems by natural association to raise 
the imagination to that world, where the streets are of pure 
gold, the gates of pearl, and night is unknown. 

" Look, the massy trunks 
Are cased in the pure crystal ; branch and twig 
Shine in the lucid covering ; each light^-od. 
Nodding and twinkling in the stirring breeze, 



SUMMER AND AVINTER SCENERY. 103 

Is studded with its trembling water-di*oj>s, 

Still streaming, as they move, with colom-ed light. 

But round the parent stem, the long, low boughs 

Bend in a glittering ring, or arbours hide 

The glassy floor. Oh ! you might deem the spot 

The spacious cavern of some virgin mine, 

Deep in the womb of earth, where the gems grow ! 

And diamonds put forth radiant rods, and bud 

With amethyst and topaz, and the place 

Lit up most royally with the pure beam 

That dwells in tllem; or, haply, the vast hall 

Of fairy palace, that outlasts the night, 

And fades not in the glory of the sun ; 

Wiiere crystal columns send forth slender shafts. 

And crossing arches, and fantastic aisles 

Wind from the sight in brightness, and are lost 

Among the crowded pillars." 

The winter scenery about the Falls is peculiar, a sight of 
which is worth a journey of thousands of miles. Myriads 
of wild ducks and geese spend the day in and above the 
rapids, and regularly take their departure for Lake Ontario 
every night before dark ; though some are often found in the 
morning with a broken leg or wing, and sometimes dead, in 
the river below the Falls. This generally happens after a very 
dark or foggy night ; and it is supposed that, as they always 
have their heads up stream, while in the water, they are 
carried down insensibly by the rapids, till they find them- 
selves going over the precipice, and then, in attempting to fl}^ 
they dive into the sheet of Avater, and are buried for a time 
under the Falls, or dashed upon the rocks. 

Dead fish too, of almost all sizes and descriptions, and 
weighing from one to seventy pounds, are found floating in 
the eddies below the Falls, forming a dainty repast for gulls, 
loons, hawks, and eagles. The splendid gyrations of the gulls, 
and their fearless approaches, enveloped in clouds of mist, up 
to the boiling caldron directly under the Falls, attract much 
attention. But the eagle, fierce, daring, contemplative, and 
tyrannical, takes his stand upon the point of some projecting 
rock, or the dry limb of a gigantic tree, and watches with 
excited interest the movements of the Avhole feathered tribes 



101 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGAKA. 

below. Standing there in lordly pride and dignit}'^^ in an 
instant liis eye kindles and his ardour rises as he sees the 
fish-hawk emerge from the deep, screaming with exultation 
at his success. He darts forth like lightning,, and gives furi- 
ous chase. The hawk, perceiving his danger, utters a scream 
of despair, and drops his fish ; and the eagle instantly seizes 
the fish in the air, and bears his ill-gotten booty to his lofty 
eyrie. 

Sometimes during a part of the Avinter, the ice is driven by 
the wind from Lake Erie, and poured over the Falls in such 
immense quantities as to fill and block up the river between 
the banks, for a mile or more, to the depth of from thirty to 
fifty feet, so that people cross the ice to Canada, on foot, for 
weeks together : the river itself is never frozen over, either 
above or below the Falls, but it affords an outlet for vast 
quantities of ice from the upper lakes. 

The river at the Falls, is a little over three-fourths of a mile 
in width, but below, it is immediately compressed into a 
narrow channel of less than one-fourth of a mile in width : 
its depth, as ascertained by sounding, is about 250 feet. Its 
colour is deep green, and sometimes blue; occasioned, no 
doubt, by reflection from the sky. 

One of the best general views of the Falls and river below, 
is from a projecting rock, about a mile below the village, some- 
times called Point View^ The perpendicular rock is here 
200 feet above the river, and from the verge of the dizzy 
height is to be obtained the most complete and extensive 
view of the entire Falls, the river below, and its rocky and 
precipitous banks, that can be obtained from any other 
position. 

For about two miles below the Falls, the river is compar- 
atively smooth ; it then runs with amazing velocity to Lewis- 
ton ; and, what is remarkable, while the river makes a constant 
descent, the banks have a gradual ascent for six miles; so that 
from the top of the bank to the water, at Brock's Monument, 
near Queeuston, is 370 feet ; and the heights there are 38 
feet higher than Lake Erie, and 25 feet higher than the land 



C. J. LATROBE. 103 

at Schlosscr. Whether the bed of the river hcr<3 was once 
a natural ravine, or was formed by an earthquake, or worn 
away by the continued and violent action of the water falling 
upon the rocks — thus carrying the Falls back from Queens- 
ton to their present situation, it would be difficult to deter- 
mine with certainty. 

From descriptions of the Falls written nearly two hundred 
years ago, we learn, that though their shiipe has been some- 
what altered since, they then occupied the place which they 
hold now, and exhibited the same wonderful phenomena. 
When and by whom among the whites they were first dis- 
covered, the writer has never yet been able to ascertain. 
Tradition ascinbes their discovery to two missionaries, who 
were on an exploring tour to this part of the country, in an 
age anterior to any written account extant. 



NIAGARA.— BY CHARLES JOSEPH LATROBE. 

(From his " Rambles in North America.") 

You may recollect my juvenile weakness, that of being a 
notorious cascade hunter. There was something in the 
motion of a waterfall which always made my brain spin 
with pleasure. Impelled by this passion, as a boy, I ran- 
sacked the moorland and mountain districts of the north 
of England, in quest of the beautiful but diminutive speci- 
mens of this variety of natural scenery with Avhich they 
abound ; and at a later period, there was not an acccssilde 
waterfall within my range of travel, from the Ilhine Fall to 
Tivoli, that I did not contrive to approach, gaze upon, and 
listen to with infinite pleasure. So you may well ask what 
impression was made upon me by Niagara. 

I am glad that the position and the general features of this 
celebrated scene are too well known to need description, and 
that you Avill require none from me. 

At the commencement of the present century, Niagara, 

H 



lOG DESCRIPTIONS OI' NIAGARA. 

difficult of access, and rarely visited, was still tlie cataract of 
the wilderness. The red Indian still lingered in its vicinity, 
and adored the ' Great Spirit' and ' Master of Life/ as he 
listened to the ' Thunder of the waters.' The human habi- 
tations within sound of its Fall were few and far apart. Its 
few visitors came, gazed, and departed in silence and awe, 
having for their guide the child of the forest, or the hardy 
back-woodsman. No staring, painted hotel rose over the 
woods, and obtruded its pale face over the edge of the boiling 
river. The journey to it from the east was one of adventure 
and peril. The scarcely attainable shore of Goat Island, 
lying between the two great divisions of the cataract, had 
only been trodden by a few hardy adventurers, depending 
upon stout hearts and steady hands for escape from the 
imminent perils of the passage. How is it now ? The forest 
has everywhere yielded to the axe. Hotels, with their snug 
shrubberies, out-houses, gardens, and paltiy embellishment, 
stare you in the face ; museums, mills, staircases, tolls, and 
grog - shops, all the petty trickery of ]\Iatlock-baths, or 
Ambleside, greet the eye of the traveller. Bridges are 
thrown from island to island; and Goat Island is reached 
without adventure. A scheming company on the Canadian 
side have planned a ' City of the Falls,' to be filled with snug 
cottages, symmetrically arranged, to let for the season ; and, 
in fine, you write to your friend in Quebec, and giving him 
rendezvous at Niagara for a certain hour, start yourself 
from Richmond, in Virginia, for the point proposed, with 
a moral certainty of meeting at the very day and hour speci- 
cified, by taking advantage of the improvements of the age, 
and the well-arranged mode of conveyance by steamers, rail- 
roads, canals, and coaches. In short, Niagara is now as 
hacknied as Stockgill Forge, or Rydal-water, and, all things 
considered, the observation of an unimaginative ' Eastern 
man' is said to have made, addressing a young lady-tourist, 
who was gazing breathlessly for the first time at the scene, was 
not so far out of keeping with it : "Isn't it nice, Miss ?" Yes, all 
is nice, that that active little biped man has done, or is doing. 



C. J. I.ATUOBE. 107 

But do not suppose tliat we grew peevisli at the siglit of 
the blots upon the Landscape to which I have alluded, and 
departed in wrath and disgust. We soon found that there 
is that in and about Niagara which was not to be marred by 
busy man and all his petty schemes for convenience and 
aggrandisement ; and I may truly say, with regard to both 
our first and second visit, and stay within its precincts, that 
we were under the influence of its spell. While Avithin the 
sound of its waters, I will not say that you become part and 
parcel of the cataract, but you find it difficult to think, speak, 
or dream of anything else. Its Adbrations pervade, not only 
the air you breathe, the bank on which you sit, the paper on 
which you write, but thrill through your whole frame, and 
act upon your nervous system in a remarkable, and it may 
almost be said unpleasant, manner. You may have heard of 
individuals coming back from the contemplation of these 
Falls with dissatisfied feelings. To me this is perfectly 
incomprehensible, and I do not know whether to envy the 
splendid fancies and expectations of that class of travellers, 
to whom the sight of Niagara would bring disappointment, 
or to feel justified in doubting whether they have any imagi- 
nation or eye for natural scenery at all. How blank the 
world must be, to them, of objects of natural interest ! What 
can they expect to see ? 

As to expectations, ours were excited and warm, and 
I shall never forget the real anxiety with which we looked 
out, on our ascent from Lewiston, for the first appearance oi 
the object of our visit. The broad fathomless blue river, 
streaked with foam, which, deeply sunk in a colossal channel, 
Imrried to our rencontre, and appeared at every glimpse as 
we advanced swifter and in greater commotion, was to us 
a guarantee that the scene of its descent from the upper 
country could be no common one. When about three miles 
from the village on the American side, you gain your first 
view of the Falls, together Avith the river, both above and 
below — the island which divides them — and greater part of 
the basin at their feet. 

n 2 



108 DESCRIPTIOXS OF NIAGARA. 

I will not say but that the impression of that first glance 
was heightened afterwards by our nearer and reiterated 
survey of every portion of the cataract in detail ; yet we all 
agreed that we could even then grasp the idea of its magni- 
tude, and that all we had seen elsewhere, and all we had 
expected, was far surpassed by what was then shown to us. 
And when, the following year, two of us turned aside by 
common consent to pay a second visit to Niagara, after 
having, in the interval, visited many of the great Falls of 
Lower Canada, — cataracts in comparison to which all Euro- 
pean Falls are puerile — and we felt our curiosity excited to 
divine what impression a second visit Avould make ; far 
from being disappointed, we felt that before Niagara, in spite 
of its inferiority of elevation, all shrunk to plajthings. It 
is not the mere weight and volume of water that should give 
this far-famed cataract the first rank. Every surrounding 
object seems to be on a corresponding scale of magnificence. 
The wide liquid surface of the river above, with its swelling 
banks, contrasted by the deep blue floods below, as boiling 
up from their plunge into the unfathomed basin, then shock 
against one another, and race down towards the distant lake ; 
the extreme beauty of the forested defile, with its precipices 
and slope ; the colouring of tlie waters, which in the upper 
part of its descent is that of the emerald ; the mystery and 
thick gloom w hicli hide the foot of the Falls, and add to their 
apparent height, and the floating clouds of vapour, now 
hm-ried over the face of the landscape, as though urged by 
the breath of a hurricane, and then slowly ascending, and 
hovering like a cloud in the blue sky, all combine to form a 
scene in which sublimity and picturesque beauty are enchant- 
ingly blended. There is here none of that stiffness, either in 
the scenery, or the form and appearance of the particular 
object of interest, Avhich engravings too frequently give you 
the idea of. 

Among the innumerable points of view, that from the 
precipitous shore of the river, about the distance I have 
alluded to, is the most satisfactory, if not the most striking. 



C. J. LATROBE. 109 

In the immediate vicinity of tlie Falls, the points of interest 
are so various, that if you would require a sketch, I sliould 
not know which to select. The grandest, doubtless, is from 
the Canadian shore, near the Horse-Shoe Fall ; but you pass 
from one to the other, and everywhere the picture presented 
has no compeer or rival in nature. 

Many things combined to make us prefer choosing the 
village on the American shore for our halting-place, in pre- 
ference to the garish hotel on the opposite site. The greater 
monotony of the right-hand division of the cataract, was 
counterbalanced by the grand distant view of its neighbour, 
and by the practicabihty of a near approach to both from 
Goat Island, to which an easy access is afforded by a boldly 
constructed bridge over the rapids. Besides, we agreed that 
the position of the village and its inns was not only more 
rural and secluded, but that better taste was exhibited in its 
details. 

What a glorious scene ! to sit upon the summit of the 
impending precipice of the island, and see, as we did the 
morning after our first arrival, the summer mist begin to rise 
and disengage itself from the heavy white cloud of spray which 
rose from the depth of the boiling basin of the great Fall 
beneath us. By degrees, the curtain was partially removed, 
revealing the wall of slowly-descending water behind, now 
dimly descried, — as confounded with the floating sheets of 
foam and spray which the wind of the mighty cataract drove 
backward and forward over it like innumerable clouds of 
thin floating gauze, — it mocked us with its constantly vary- 
ing shape and position ; and then appearing unveiled with 
its sea - green tints brilliantly illuminated by the passing 
sunbeam. An hour after, and the mist had disappeared ; the 
Falls were sparkling in the l)right sunshine; and a brilliant 
iris was resting on the body of vapour which the wind carried 
away from the face of the descending columns. The scene 
at sunset, day after day, was no way less majestic, when the 
sun, glancing from the Canadian shore, lit up the precipices 
and woods of Goat Island, and the broad face of the American 



110 L)i:>;( KU'TioNs or niaoara. 

Fall, which then glowed like a wall of gold; while half the 
Fall of the Horse- Shoe, avid the deep recesses of the curve, 
were wrapped in shade. Morning, noon, and night found 
us strolling about the shore, and on the island, which is an 
earthly paradise. 

I remember the quiet hours spent there, when fatigued 
with the glare of the hot bright sun, and the din of the 
Falls, with peculiar delight. We loved, too, to escape from 
all those signs of man^s presence and busy-bodying, to which 
I have alluded, and, burying ourselves in the fresh dark 
scarce-trodden forest still covering a great part of its area, to 
listen to the deadened roar of the vast cataracts on either 
hand, swelling on the air distinct from every other sound. 

There, seated in comparative solitude, you catch a peep 
across a long vista of stems of the white vapour and foam. 
You listen to the sharp cry of the blue jay, the tap of the red- 
lieaded woodpecker, and the playful baik of the squirrel ; you 
scan the smooth white boles of the beech or birch, chequered 
Avith broad patches of dark-green moss, the stately elm and 
oak, the broad-lcavcd maple, the silvery-Avhite and exquisitely 
chiselled trunk of the cedar, or the decaying trunk of the 
huge chesnut, garlanded with creepers j but you will hardly 
ever lose the consciousness of the locality. The spell of 
[Niagara is still upon and around you. You glance again and 
again at the white veil which thickens or grows dim beyond 
the leafy forest : the rush of the nearer rapids, the din of 
falling waters, the murmur of the echoes answering the 
l)ulsations of the descending mass, fill your ears, and pervade 
all natiu'e. 

Everything around and about you aj)pears to reply to the 
cataract, and to partake of it, none more so than the ever- 
green forest, which is bathed from year to year in the dew of 
the river. These noble trees, as they tower aloft on the soil, 
are sustained from youth to age by the invigorating spray of 
the mighty Falls. Their leaves are steeped, summer after 
summer, in the heavy dew; their trunks echo the falling 
Maters, from the day they rise from the sod, to that in which 



MKS. SIGOURNKY. Ill 

they are shaken to the ground ; and the fibres of the huge 
moss-grown trunk on which you sit^ prostrate and moulder- 
ing on the ricli soil beneath, bedded in the fresh grass and 
leaves, still vibrates to the sound of its thunders, and 
crumbles gradually to dust. But all this proves nothing — 
as a matter-of-fact man might say — but that I am Niagara- 
mad. We have much before us, and many sublime scenes, 
though none may vie with that, before which we have been 
lingering : — allons ! 



NIAGARA.— BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. 

Up to the Table-Rock, where the great flood 

Reveals its fullest glory. To the verge 

Of its appalling battlement draw near. 

And gaze beloAV. Or, if thy spirit fail, 

Creep stealthily, and snatch a trembling glance 

Into the dread abyss. 

What there thou seest 
Shall dwell for ever in thy secret soul, 
Finding no form of language. 

The vexed deep. 
Which from the hour that Chaos heard the voice 
" Let there be light," hath known nor pause nor rest, 
Communeth through its misty cloud with Him 
Who breaks it on the wheel of pitiless rock, 
Yet heals it every moment. Bending near, 
Mid all the terror, as an angel-friend. 
The rainbow walketh in its company 
With perfect orb full-rounded. Dost thou cling 
Thus to its breast, a Comforter, to give 
Strength in its agony, thou radiant form, 
Born of the trembling tear-drop, and the smile 
Of sun, or glimmering moon ? 



113 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Yet from a scene 
So awfully sublime, our senses shrink, 
And fain would shield them at the solemn base 
Of the tremendous precipice, and glean 
Such hallowed thoucrhts as blossom in its shade. 



This is thy building, Architect Divine ! 
Who heav^dst the pillars of the Universe. 
Up, without noise, the mighty fabric rose, 
And to the clamour of the unresting gulf 
For ever smiting on its ear of rock 
With an eternal question, answereth nought. 
Man calls his vassals forth, with toil and pain ; 
Stone piled on stone, the pyramid ascends. 
Yet ere it reach its apex-point, he dies, 
Nor leaves a chiselled name upon his tomb. 
The vast cathedral grows, with deep-groined arch. 
And massj'^ dome, slow reared, while race on race 
Fall like the ivy sere, that climbs its walls. 
The imperial palace towers, the triumph arch. 
And the tall fane that tells a hero's praise 
Uplift their crowns of fret-work haughtily. 
But, lo ! the Gotli doth waste them, and his herds 
The Vandal pastures mid their fallen pride. 
But thou, from age to age, unchanged hast stood, 
Even like an altar to Jehovah's name, 
Silent, and stedfast, and immutable. 
Niagara and the storm-cloud ! 

To the peal 
Of their united thunder, rugged rocks 
Amazed reverberate, through depths profound 
Streams the red lightning, while the loftiest trees 
Bow, and are troubled. Shuddering earth doth hide 
In midnight's veil ; and even the ethereal mind. 
Which hath the seed of immortality 
Within itself, — not undismayed, beholds 
This fearful tumult of the elements. 



Mils. SIGOURNEY. 113 

Old Ocean meets the tempest and is wrotli, 

And in his wrath destroys. The wrecking ship, 

The sea-boy stricken from the qnaking mast, 

The burning tear wrung forth from many a home, 

To which the voj^ager returns no more. 

Attest the fury of his vengeful mood. 

But thou, Niagara, know^st no passion-gust ; 

Thy mighty bosom, from the sheeted rain. 

Spreads not itself to sudden boastfulness. 

Like the wild torrent in its shallow bed. 

Thou art not angry, and thou changest not. 

Man finds in thee no emblem of himself; 
The cloud depresseth him, the adverse blast 
E/Ouseth the billows of his discontent, 
The wealth of summer-showers inflates his pride. 
And with the simple faith and love of Ilim 
Who made him from the dust, he mingleth much 
Of his own vain device. Perchance, even here, 
'Neath all the sternness of thy strong rebuke. 
Light fancies fill him, and he gathereth straws 
Or plaiteth rushes, or illusive twines 
Garlands of hope, more fragile still than they. 

But in one awful voice, that ne'er has known 
Change or inflection since the morn of time. 
Thou utterest forth that One Eternal Name, 
Which he who graves not on his inmost soul 
Will find his proudest gatherings, as the dross 
That cannot profit. 

Thou hast ne'er forgot 
Thy lesson, or been weary, day or night. 
Nor with its simple, elemental thought 
Mixed aught of discord . 

Teacher, sent from God, 
We bow us to thy message, and are still. 



114 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Oh ! full of glory, and of majesty, 

With all thy terrible apparel on, 

High-priest of Nature, who within the veil 

Mysterious, unapproachable dost dwell. 

With smoke of incense ever streaming up. 

And round thy breast, the folded bow of heaven, 

Few are our words before thee. 

For ^tis meet 
That even the mightiest of our race should stand 
Mute in thy presence, and Avith childlike awe. 
Disrobed of self, adore his God through thee. 

" Deep calleth unto deep, at the noise of thy waterspouts." 
Most appositely did the poet Brainerd, in his beautiful apos- 
trophe to Niagara, quote from the inspired minstrel, " deep 
calleth unto deep." Simple and significant also, was its 
Indian appellation, the "Water-thunderer." To the wander- 
ing son of the forest, 

" whose untutored mind 
Saw God in clouds, or heard him in the wind," 

it forcibly suggested the image of that Great Spirit, who in 
darkness and storm sends forth from the skies a mighty voice. 

The immense volume of water which distinguishes Niagara 
from all other cataracts, is seldom fully realized by the casual 
visitant. Transfixed by his emotions, he forgets that he sees 
the surplus waters of those vast inland seas, Superior, Huron, 
Michigan, and Erie, arrested in their rushing passage to the 
Ocean, by a fearful barrier of rock, 160 feet in height. He 
scarcely recollects that the tributaries to this river, or strait, 
coAcr a surface of 150,000 miles. Indeed, how can he bow 
his mind to aught of arithmetical computation, when in the 
presence of this monarch of floods. 

The view from the boat while crossing the Ferry is unique 
and impressive. It gives the first strong idea of the greater 
magnificence that awaits you.* You are encompassed by an 

* Tliat i.s crossino- from the American side. 



MRS. SIGOURNEY. llo 

ampliitlieatre of towering rocks and hills. Fragments of 
rainbows and torrents of mist hover around you. A stupen- 
dous column rises, whose base is in the fathomless depth, 
whose head, wrapped in cloud, seems to join earth and 
heaven. It strikes you as a living personification of His 
power who poured it " from the hollow of his hand.-'^ You 
tremble at its feet. With a great voice of thunder it Avarns 
you uot to approach. The winds spread out their wings, and 
whelm you in a deluge of spray. You are sensible of the 
giant force of the tide, bearing up the boat, which like an 
egg-shell is tossed upon its terrible bosom. You feel like an 
atom in the great creation of God. You glance at the 
athletic sinews of the roAvers, and wonder if they are equal 
to their perilous task. But the majesty of the surrounding 
scene annihilates selfish apprehension ; and, ere you are aware, 
the little boat runs smoothly to" her haven, and you stand on 
the Canadian shore. 

Hitherto, all you have seen will convey but au imperfect 
impression of the grandeur and sublimity that are unfolded 
on the summit of Table-E,ock. This is a precipice nearly 
160 feet in height, with flat, smooth, altar-shaped surface. 
As you approach this unparapeted projection, the unveiled 
glories of Niagara burst upon the astonished senses. We 
borroAV the graphic delineation of a gentleman,* Avho nearly 
forty years since Avas a visitant of this scene, and thus 
describes it from the summit of Table-Rock. 

" On your right hand, the river comes roaring forward 
with all the agitation of a tempestuous ocean, recoiling in 
Avaves and Avhirlpools, as if determined to resist the impulse 
which is forcing it downward to the gulf. When Avithin a 
few yards, and apparently at the moment of sAA^eeping away, 
it plunges headlong into what seems a bottomless pit, for the 
vapour is so thick at the foot of the precipice, that the torrent 
is completely lost to the view. 

" Seen from the Table-Rock, the tumbling green Avaters of 
the rapids, Avhich persuade you that an ocean is approaching ; 
' Dr. AA'adi) worth, E?(i. 



116 DESCRIPTIONS or NIAGARA. 

the brilliant colour of the water; the frightful gulf, and 
headlong torrent at your feet ; the white column rising from 
its centre, and often reaching to the clouds; the black wall 
of rock frowning from the opposite island ; and the long 
curtain of foam descending from the other shore, interrupted 
only by one dark shaft, form altogether one of the most 
beautiful, as well as awful, scenes in nature. The effect of all 
these objects is much heightened by being seen from a dizzy 
and fearful pinnacle, upon which you seem suspended over a 
fathomless abyss of vapour, whence ascends the deafening 
uproar of the greatest cataract in the world, and by reflect- 
ing that this powerful torrent has been rushing down, and 
this grand scene of stormy magnificence been in the same 
dreadful tumult for ages, and will continue so for ages to 
come.^' 

Skirting the base of the Table-llock, you arrive at the 
point of entrance, behind the vast sheet of water, Avhich 
those who desire to traverse, provide themselves with fitting 
apparel, which is here kept for that purpose. This magnifi- 
cent cavern is often tenanted by rushing winds, which drive 
the spray with blinding fury in the face of the approaching 
pilgrim. Clad in rude garments, and cap of oil-cloth, with 
coarse shoes — the most unpicturesque of all figures — he 
approaches, staking his staff among the loose fragments that 
obstruct his way. The path is slippery and perilous, the 
round wet stones betray his footing, and sometimes cold, 
slimy, and wriggling eels coil around his ancles. Respiration 
is at first difficult, almost to suffocation. But the aiding 
hand and encouraging voice of the guide are put in requi- 
sition, and, almost ere he is aware, he reaches Termination 
Rock, beyond which all progress is hazardous. This exploit 
entitles him to a certificate, obtained at the house Avliere his 
garb was provided, and signed by the guide. But should he 
fail of attaining this honour, Ijy a too precipitate retreat from 
this cavern of thunders, he is still sure of a magnificent 
shower-bath. 

The lover of Nature's magnificence will scarcelv be satisfied 



MRS. SIGOURNEY. 117 

without repeated visits to Niagara. The mind is slow in 
receiving the idea of great magnitude. It requires time and 
repetition to expand and deepen the perceptions that over- 
whelm it. This educating process is peculiarly necessary 
among scenery, where the mind is continually thrown back 
upon its Author, and the finite, trying to take hold of the 
Infinite, falters, and hides itself in its own nothingness. 

It is impossible for Niagara to disappoint, unless through 
the infirmity of the conception that fails to grasp it. Its 
resources are inexhaustible. It can never expand itself, 
because it points always to God. More unapproachable than 
the fathomless ocean, man cannot launch a bark upon its 
bosom, or bespeak its service in any form. He may not even 
lay his hand upon it, and live. Upon its borders he can 
dream, if he will, of gold-gathering, and of mill-privileges ; 
but its perpetual warning is, " Hence, ye profane \" 

Let none, who have it in their power to change their 
places at will, omit a pilgrimage to Niagara. The facilities of 
travelling render it now a very different exploit from what it 
was in the days of our fathers, who were forced to cut away 
with their axes the branches intercepting the passage of the 
rocky roads. Those whose hearts respond to whatever is 
.beautiful and sublime in creation, should pay their homage to 
this mighty cataract. No other scenery so powerfully com- 
bines these elements. 

Let the gay go thither to be made thoughtful, and the 
religious to become more spiritually-minded. Yet let not 
the determined trifler linger here to pursue his revels. 
Frivolity seems an insult to the majesty that presides here. 
Folly and dissipation are surely out of place. The thunder- 
hymn of the mighty flood reproves them. Day and night it 
seems to repeat and enforce the words of inspiration : " The 
Lord is in his holy temple : let all the earth keep silence 
before Him.''— Hab. ii. 20. 



118 DESCUIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



CURIOSITIES MINERAL SPRING, &c. 

A NUMBER of these, as the islands, the bridges, the staircases, 
the burning springs, Brock's Monument, the Welland 
Canal, &c., have already been described. One mile above the 
Falls on the American side, is the site of old Fort Schlosser ; 
a place somewhat distinguished in the early history of this 
region, and commanding a most beautiful prospect of the 
river and rapids, of Grand and Navy Islands, and of the 
village of Chippewa, on the opposite shore. Nothing remains 
of the fort, except the entrenchments, and a few rods of pave- 
ment within. 

A stockade was built here in the year 1672. Before the 
construction of the Erie Canal, all the business between the 
lakes was interchanged by means of a land-carriage from 
this place to Lewiston. Half a mile below the Falls, under 
the bank, are Catlin's Caves, a visit to which no traveller will 
be likely to regret. Vast quantities of calcareous or 
petrified moss are found here in all stages of its petrifying 
process. On the other side, nearly opposite, is Bender's 
Cave, a place which is thought to be worthy a special visit. 

Two miles below the Falls, on the American side, is a 
mineral spring, containing sulphuric and muriatic acids, lime 
and magnesia ; and by the use of its waters many important 
ciu-es have been effected. For scrofulous, rheumatic, and 
cutaneous complaints, this spring supplies an almost sovereign 
remedy. From the stage - road near the spring, travellers 
have a most delightful view of the Avhole Falls, two miles 
distant ; and if they see the Falls from this place first, as they 
generally do in coming up from Lewiston, the impression 
here made will probably never be effaced. Capt. Hall 
remarks respecting this place, " I felt at the moment quite 
sure that no subsequent examination, whether near or remote, 
could ever remove, or even materially Aveaken, the impression 
left 1)Y this first view." 



MR. IIOWISON. 119 



FALLS OF NIAGARA.— FROM IIOWISON'S "CANADA, 18'il." 

The Table Rock, from wliicli the Falls may be contemplated in 
all their grandeur, lies on an exact level Avith the edge of the 
cataract on the Canada side, — and forms indeed a part of the 
precipice over which the water rushes. It derives its name 
from its projecting about thirty feet beyond the cliffs that 
support it, like the leaf of a table. To gain this position, 
you must descend a steep bank, and follow a path that winds 
among shrubbery and trees, which conceals the scene which 
awaits him who traverses it. Near the termination of this 
road, an amphitheatre of cataracts bursts upon the view with 
appalling suddenness and majest3^ In a moment the scene 
was concealed by a dense cloud of spray, which involved me 
so completely that I dared not extricate myself. A mingled 
rushing and thundering filled my ears. I could see nothing, 
except Avhen the wind made a chasm in the spray ; and the 
tremendous cataracts seemed to encompass me on every side ; 
Avhile below, a raging and foaming gulf of undiscoverable 
extent lashed the rocks with its hissing waves, and swallowed 
under a horrible obscurity, the smoking floods precipitated 
into its bosom. 

After a few minutes the sun burst forth, and the haze sub- 
siding, permitted the spray to ascend perpendicularly. A 
host of pyramidal clouds rose majestically, one after another, 
from the abyss below the Fall ; and each, when it ascended 
a little above the edge of the cataract, displayed a beautiful 
rainbow, which in a few moments was gradually transferred 
into the bosom of the cloud that immediately succeeded. The 
spray of the Great (Horse-Shoe) Fall had extended itself 
through a wide space directly overheard, and receiving the full 
influence of the sun, exhibited a luminous and n)agnificent 
rainbow, which continued to irradiate the spot where I 
stood, while I enthusiastically contemplated the indescribable 
scene. 



120 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Any person who has nerve enough (as I had), may plunge 
his hand into the water of the Great Fall, after it is projected 
over the precipice, merely by lying down flat, with his face 
beyond the edge of the Table Rock, and stretching out liis 
arm to its utmost extent. The experiment is truly a horrible 
one, and such as I would not wish to repeat ; for even to this 
day, I feel a shuddering and recoiling sensation, when I 
recollect having been in the posture described. 

The body of water, which comprises the middle part of the 
Great Fall, is so vast, that it descends nearly two-thirds 
of the space, without being ruffled or broken ; and the solemn 
calmness with which it rolls over the edge of the precipice, is 
finely contrasted with the perturbed appearance it assumes 
below. But the water towards each side is shattered the 
moment it drops on the rock into pyramidal fragments, 
of which the bases are turned upwards. The surface of the 
gulf below presents a very singular appearance ; seeming 
filled with an immense quantity of hoar-frost, which is 
agitated by small and rapid undulations. The particles of 
water are dazzlingly white, and do not apparently unite 
together, but seem to continue for a time in a state of distinct 
comminution, and to repel each other with a thrilling and 
shivering motion not easy to be described. 

The road to the bottom of the Fall presents many more 
difficulties. By descending a spiral staircase nearly half a 
mile below tlie Table-Rock, the traveller finds himself about 
eighty feet under the precipice ou which he had walked. The 
impending cliffs seem to vibrate with the thunders of the 
approaching Falls, and display on their surface fossil shells, 
and the organic remains of a former world. As the traveller 
advances, he is frightfully stunned by the noise ; clouds of 
spray sometimes envelop him, and check his faltering steps ; 
rattlesnakes start from the cavities of the rocks; and the 
scream of eagles, soaring among the whirlwinds of eddying 
vapour which obscure the gulf, at intervals announce that the 
raging waters have hurled some bewildered animal over the 
precipice. After scrambling among piles of huge rocks that 



MR. HOWISON. 121 

obstruct his slippery way, the traveller gains the bottom of 
the Fall, where the soul can be susceptible only of one 
emotion, — that of uncontrollable terror ! 

It was not until I had, by frequent excursions to the Falls, 
in some measure familiai-ised my mind with their sublimities, 
that I ventured to explore the Penetralia of the Great 
Cataract. The precipice over which it rolls, is very much 
arched underneath; while the impetus which the water 
receives in its descent, projects it fiu* beyond the cliflF; and 
thus an immense Gothic arch is formed by the rock and the 
torrent. Twice I entered this cavern, and twice I was obliged 
to retrace my steps, lest I should be suffocated by the blasts 
of dense spray that whirled around me : the third time, I suc- 
ceeded in advancing about twenty-five yards. Here darkness 
began to encircle me : on one side the black cliff stretched 
itself into a gigantic arch far above my head ; and on the 
other, the dense and hissing torrent formed an impenetrable 
sheet of water, with which I was drenched in a moment. 
The rocks were so slippery that I could scarcely keep my 
feet, or hold securely by them ; while the horrid din made 
me think the precipices above were tumbling down in colossal 
fragments upon my head. 

It is not easy to determine how far an individual might 
advance ; but even were it possible to explore the recess to its 
extremity, scarce any one, I believe, would have courage to 
attempt such an expedition. 

A little way below the Great Fall the river is comparatively 
so tranquil, that a ferry-boat plies between the Canadian 
and American shores. When I crossed, the skiff was at first 
tossed about with a violence that seemed very alarming ; but 
as soon as we gained the middle, my attention was wholly 
engaged by the surpassing grandeur of the scene. I was 
now within the area of a semicircle of cataracts, more than 
3,000 feet in extent. I looked up amidst clouds of vapour, 
and hideous noise — to the height of 150 feet — and saw vast 
floods vehemently bursting over the precipice, as if the 

1 



122 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

windows of heaven were opened to pour another deluge on 
the earth ! 

Loud sounds, resembling the discharge of artillery or vol- 
canic irruptions, were now distinguished amidst the watery 
tumult. The sun, looking majestically through the ascend- 
ing spray, was encircled by a radiant halo ; Avhile fragments 
of rainbows floated on every side, and momentarily vanished 
only to give place to a succession of others more brilliant. 
Looking back, I saw the Niagara river again become calm, 
rolling majestically between the towering cliffs, and receiving 
showers of dew-drops from the trees that gracefully overarch 
its transparent bosom : while beautiful birds fluttered around, 
as if to welcome its egress from those clouds and thunders. 

The height of the Great Fall, as taken with a plumb-line, 
is 149 feet : its curve supposed to extend 2,100 feet, and its 
arc may measure nearly half that space. The breadth of 
Goat Island, is 984 feet ; and that of the American Fall 
(which it is unnecessary to describe) 1140 feet, its pitch being 
164, or fifteen feet higher than the Great Fall. Therefore 
the whole circumference of the precipice over which the Falls 
roll, is, 4,224 feet, and the width of the cataract itself 3,240 
feet. In general their form is that of an irregular semicircle, 
extending about three quarters of a mile. A dog, which I 
have seen, was carried over the Great Fall some years ago, 
and suffered no injury except the fracture of two ribs. But 
of the human bodies which have in several instances been 
carried over, none (I believe) was ever found. Dead wild- 
ducks are found in great numbers near the bottom of the 
Falls along the banks, on the mornings that succeed to dark 
and stormy nights ; which some suppose carried over while 
asleep ; — but others, more probably, think them entangled 
in the rapids above, and swept away ere aware of their 
danger. 

The three extensive views are those described : there is 
a similar staircase on the American side. In general the first 
view travellers obtain from the road, being above the level of 



WHIRLPOOL. 123 

the Falls, is comparatively imperfect and imimposing. The 
country around is exquisitely beautiful ; and there are several 
mansions very near, and in view of the rapids and the Great 
FaU. 



WHIRLPOOL.— DEVIL'S HOLE.— TUSCARORA INDIANS. 

One mile further down leads t& a tremendous whirlpool, 
resembling very much, in its appearance and gyrations, the 
celebrated Maelstrom on the coast of Norway. Logs and 
trees are sometimes whirled around for days together in its 
outer circles, while in the centre they are drawn down per- 
pendicularly with great force, are soon shot out again at 
the distance of many rods, and occasionally thrust into the 
channel to pass down the river. The river here makes nearly 
a right angle, which occasions the whirlpool, — is narrower 
than at any other place, not more than thirty rods in width, — 
— and the current runs with such amazing velocity as to rise 
up in the middle ten feet above the sides. This has been 
ascertained by actual measurement. 

" Resistless, roaring, dreadful down it comes, — 
There, gathering triple force, rapid and deep, — 
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through." 

There is a path leading down the bank to the whirlpool on 
both sides, and, though somewhat difficult to descend and 
ascend, it is accomplished almost every day on the American 
side, by gentlemen, and often by lacjies. 

A brisk and very refreshing breeze is felt there during the 
hottest and stillest days of summer; and no place is better 
fitted to elevate and expand the mind. The whirlpool is a 
phenomenon of great interest as seen even from the top of 
the bank, especially if a small telescope be used ; but to have 
any adequate idea of its power and motion, visitors ought to 
descend to the water's edge, and walk some distance up the 
river. The rapids here are much more powerful and terrific 

I 2 



134 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

than they are above the Falls, and appear like a flood of 
watery brilliants rushing along. 

Having written thus far, the writer laid down his pen, and 
started off on a fresh visit to the Avhirlpool ; and now, having 
spent half a day there in mute astonishment and admiration, 
and walked more than a mile by the river^s edge, he is utterly 
at a loss what language to use in describing it. He is aware 
that the above description is tame aud meagre ; and yet he 
can think of no language, no imageiy, no comparison, that 
will not fall immeasurabiy*^short of conveying a just idea of 
the scene. He can only say, soberly and earnestly, that no 
gentleman ought hereafter to acknowledge that he has seen 
the Falls of Niagara, unless he could also say he had seen the 
whirlpool from the water's edge. A staircase down the bank 
would be a great accommodation to visitors, and it is to be 
hoped that one ere long will be constructed. Water for 
hydraulic purposes, may easily be brought into use here to an 
almost unlimited extent. 

About the year 1812, an accident occurred here, perhaps 
worth recording. A party of men were employed in cutting 
cedar logs near the river about the whirlpool, Avith a view to 
get them floated to Lewiston. One man stepping upon some 
of them that were rafted, was imperceptibly, or perhaps 
through carelessness, drawn out into the current, and swiftly 
carried into the whirlpool. He clung to a log, and was carried 
round and round in the capacious basin for hours, expecting 
every moment to be crushed among the logs or thrust into 
the vortex, while his companions on shore could afford him 
no relief. At length some of them ascended the bank, went 
to Queenston, four miles, and procured a boat to be drawn 
up by a team. This was let down the bank, and many people 
assembled with ropes, poles, &c. to render assistance. After 
the boat had been well secured, and some men had stepped 
in intending to push out into the whirlpool, the man upon 
the log, still whirling in imminent peril of his life, was, by 
some action of the water, sent out directly to the shore, and 
finally saved, without receiving any aid from others. 



DEVIL S HOLE. 125 

A mile below the whirlpool is a place on the American 
side, called the ^' Devil's Hole/' embracing about two acres, 
cut out laterally and perpendicularly in the rock by the side 
of the river, and about one hundred and fifty feet deep. This 
name was probably given from that of the personage more 
frequently invoked in this region, formerly, than any other. 
How this hole was thus made it is difficult to conjecture. 
Visitors look into it with silent, inexpressible amazement. 
An angle of this hole or gulf comes within a few feet of the 
stage road, affording travellers an opportLinity, without alight- 
ing, of looking into the yawning abyss. But they ought to 
alight and pass to the farther side of the fiat projecting rock, 
where they will feel themselves richly repaid for their trouble. 
The scenery there presented is singularly captivating and 
sublime. 

This place is distinguished by an incident that occurred 
about the year 1759. A company of British soldiers, pursued 
by the French and Indians, were driven off this rock at the 
point of the bayonet. All, save one, instantly perished upon 
the rocks two hundred feet beneath them. This one fell into 
the crotch of a tree, and succeeded afterwards in ascending 
the bank and making his escape. 

A man by the name of Steadman, who lived at Fort 
Schlosser, was among this companj^ of British, but made 
his escape on horseback, just before coming to the bank, 
though many balls whizzed about him in his flight. The 
Indians afterwards imagined him to be impenetrable, and 
invincible, became very friendly, and ultimately, in considera- 
tion of some services he rendered them, gave him all the 
laud included between Niagara river and a straight line 
drawn from Gill Creek above Fort Schlosser to the Devil's 
Hole, embracing about 5,000 acres. The heirs of Steadman, 
so late as the year 1823, instituted and carried on a long and 
expensive lawsuit against the State of New- York, to recover 
this land. But they could show no title, and the suit resulted 
in favour of the State and the present occupants. 

Eight miles below the Falls, and three miles back from the 



126 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

river, is the Reservation of the Tuscarora Indians, containing 
two miles in width by four in length, {about 5,000 acres,) of 
very excellent land. They consist of about three hundred 
souls, have a Presbyterian church of fifty members, a 
resident clergyman, a school teacher, and a Temperance 
Society of more than one hundred members. They are 
under the care of the American Board of Foreign Missions. 
Their village is delightfully situated on a high bank com- 
manding an extensive prospect of the surrounding country, 
and of Lake Ontario. But the greater part of the Indians 
live in a settlement a mile and a half from the village, and 
are not generally seen by visitors. 

These Indians came from North Carolina, about the year 
1713, and joined the confederacy of the Five Nations, them- 
selves making the Sixth. They formerly held a very valuable 
interest in land in North Carolina, but have recently sold it, 
and divided the proceeds equally among themselves. Many 
of them are in very prosperous circumstances; in the year 
1834, one man raised and gathered fifty acres of wheat. 

Visitors at the Falls have been in the habit of going, some- 
times in crowds, to this village on the Sabbath; but the 
Indians, with their missionary, have often expressed their 
desire that visitors would not interrupt them at that time. 



NIAGARA.— BY CAPTAIN BASIL HALL, R.N. 

(From " Travels in North America, in the Years 1827 aud 1828.") 

On the 29th of June, we went from Lockport to the Falls of 
Niagara, which infinitely exceeded our anticipations. I think 
it right to begin with this explicit statement,- because I do 
not remember in any instance in America, or in England^ 
when the subject was broached, that the first question has 
not been, " Did the Falls answer your expectations ?" 

The oest answer on this subject I remember to have heard 
of, was made by a gentleman who had just been at Niagara, 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 127 

and on his return was appealed to by a party he met on the 
way going to the Falls, uho naturally asked if he thought they 
would be disappointed. "Why, no," said he; "not unless you 
expect to witness the sea coming down from the moon !" 

On our way to the Falls we had one view, and that merely 
a glimpse, of Lake Ontario, through a wide opening in the 
trees, on the top of a rising ground. That enormous sheet of 
water, Vifhich is one hundred and seventy miles long, had none 
of those appearances of a lake, familiar as such to our eyes. 
I was prepared to expect something like the sea, but was 
surprised, though I don't well know why, by discovering it to 
be so precisely similar to the ocean. It had the same blue 
tint, and possessed all the appearances of boundless extent. 
Between the spot where we stood, and the south-western 
margin of the lake, there lay a belt of flat country, eight or 
ten miles in width, matted thickly with the untouched forest, 
and nearly as striking as the grand lake itself. 

The river Niagara which flows from Lake Erie into Lake 
Ontai'io, is unlike any other river that I know of. It is a full- 
grown stream at the first moment of its existence, and is no 
larger at its mouth than at its source. Its whole length is 
about thirty-two miles, one-half of which is above the Falls, 
and the other half lies between them and Lake Ontario. 
During the first part of its course, or that above the tremen- 
dous scene alluded to, this celebrated river slips quietly 
along out of Lake Erie, nearly at the level of the surrounding 
flat country. 

After the river passes over the Falls, however, its character 
is immediately and completely changed. It then runs furi- 
ously along the bottom of a deep wall-sided valley, or huge 
trench, which seems to have been cut into the horizontal 
strata of the limestone rock by the continued action of the 
stream during the lapse of ages. The cliffs on both sides are 
at most places nearly perpendicular, without any interval 
being left between the cliff's and the river, or any rounding 
of the edges at the top; and a rent would seem a more 
appropriate term than a valley. 



128 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

The first glimpse we got of the Great Fall was at the dis- 
tance of about three miles below it, from the right or eastern 
bank of the river. Without attempting to describe it, I may 
say, that I felt at the moment quite sure no subsequent exami- 
nation, whether near or remote, could ever remove, or even 
materially weaken, the impression left by this first view. From 
the time we discovered the stream, and especially after coming 
within hearing of the cataract, our expectations were of course 
wound up to the highest pitch. 

Most people, I suppose, in the course of their lives, must, 
on some occasion or other, have found themselves on the eve 
of a momentous occurrence; and by recalling what they 
experience at that time, will perhaps understand better what 
was felt than I can venture to describe it. I remember myself 
experiencing something akin to it at St. Helena, when wait- 
ing in Napoleon's outer room, under the consciousness that 
the tread which I heard was from the foot of the man who, 
a short while before, had roved at-will over so great a portion 
of the world ; but whose range was now confined to a few 
chambers — and that I was separated from this astonishing 
person, only b}'^ a door, which was just about to open. So it 
w^as with Niagara. I knew that at the next turn of the road, 
I should behold the most splendid sight on earth, — the outlet 
to those mighty reservoirs, which contain, it is said, one-half 
of the fresh water on the surface of our planet. 

On first coming to a scene so stupendous and varied as 
that of Niagara, the attention is embarrassed by the crowd 
of new objects ; and it always requires a certain degree of 
time to arrange the images which are suggested, before they 
can be duly appreciated. Any new knowledge, it must be 
recollected, of whatever kind, in order to be useful, requires 
to be combined with what we have previously gained, not for 
the idle purpose of drawing offensive comparisons — its too fre- 
quent application — but with a view to the purification of our 
OAvn thoughts, and the expulsion of errors, and narrowing pre- 
judices, which light upon us with the quietness of thistle down, 
but cling like burs, go where you will, or see what you may. 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 129 

In our ordinary progress tlirougli the world, it may be 
remarked, we acquire new ideas so gradually, and allow them 
to mix with the old ones so silently, that we are often uncon- 
scious of the change, and find it difficult to trace the steps 
by which the transition has been effected, from a worse to 
a better informed state of mind. 

It is quite otherwise, however, when we are brought to 
such an extensive combination of new circumstances as we 
find crowded together at Niagara, for example, or at TeneriflPe, 
or at Canton. It then becomes absolutely necessary to the 
right application of this deluge of new facts, that we should 
make ourselves familiar with them by repeated and leisurely 
observation ; and bj^ teaching us how to disentangle one cir- 
cumstance from another, allow each to take its proper place 
in our minds, side by side, or to amalgamate with the results 
of previous experience. 

If this process be necessary in the case of a person who 
has actually reached the presence of such objects, it will 
easil}^ be seen how impossible it must be for him to describe, 
to the satisfaction of others, those things which, with all his 
local advantages, it costs him a long while to comprehend or 
to make any proper use of. 

Even on the spot, it is probable that the observer takes 
correct notice of a small part only of the objects presented 
to his view. Those, however, which he does remark, straight- 
Avay suggest images in his mind, suitable to his own particular 
character, and of course essentially modified by the peculiar 
circumstances of his past life. Now, if we suppose it possible 
that he could describe, with what is called perfect or graphic 
fidelity, both the facts themselves which strike his senses, and 
the ideas which arise in his mind from a contemplation of 
them, the chances are still infinitely against these recorded 
conceptions being found suitable to the minds of his different 
readers. At the very best, the idea suggested to others by 
his description, must inevitably be feeble and incomplete in 
comparison with his own. For, it must always be remem- 
bered, that his impressions are not produced by the observa- 



130 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA- 

tions of a series of details, considered one after another^ — tlie 
only method in which a reader can view them, — hut are 
stamped upon his mind and feelings at the moment, by the 
■whole in combination. The process of reading a description, 
in short, is like that of taking a telescope to pieces, and look- 
ing at the distant object through each separate lens, — instead 
of making them all bear upon one another by appropriate 
adjustments in the tube. 

There is absolutely no remedy for this but a journey to the 
place, and the superior enjoyment of the traveller on such 
occasions is the reward which he gathers for the privations of 
the road. Nevertheless, this laborious experiment will not 
always answer; for many persons, even when looking at 
these Falls, are as much disappointed as the man who 
expected to understand a book by putting on spectacles, 
though he had never learned to read. 

The common-place maxim, therefore, so frequently rung in 
the ears of travellers, not to attempt what is called descrip- 
tion, but to tell what their own genuine feelings are upon 
these occasions, must often fail to produce any effect, purely 
from the absence of that kindred sympathy, which no Avriter 
can or ought to suppose, extends in his own case, beyond the 
circle of friends to whom his habits of thinking are well 
known. Even if he could reckon upon a large audience who 
should understand him, the probability is he would not 
advance his object much. I have been led, by the superior 
interest and importance of Niagara, to apply these obser- 
vations chiefly to that wonderful scene ; but am of opinion 
that they might apply with equal force to most other circum- 
stances which rise up in every man's path who goes from 
home. All he can hope to do, therefore, I fear, is to sketch 
with fidelity the outlines of what he sees, and leave his draw- 
ings to be filled up by the various dispositions, and the 
different degrees of knowledge of his readers ; each one being 
left to colour the picture according to his own taste or fancy. 
By the time we reached Forsyth's Inn, close to the Falls on 
the English side, we had barely light enough left to see the 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 131 

cataract from the balcony of our bedroom — distant from it, 
in a straight line not two hundred yards. I cannot bring 
myself to attempt any description of the pleasure which we 
experienced, while thus sitting at ease, and conscious of view- 
ing, in sober reahty, and at leisure, an object with which we 
had been familiar, in fancy at least, all our lives. 

We passed the greater part of the 2d of July in roving 
about the banks and studying the Falls in as many different 
aspects as we could command. In the course of our rambles 
we met a gentleman who had resided for the last thirty-six 
years in this neighbourhood — happy mortal ! He informed us 
the Great Horse-Shoe Fall had during that period gone back 
forty or fifty yards — that is to say, the edge of the rock over 
which the water pours, had broken down from time to time to 
that extent. This account was corroborated by that of 
another gentleman, who had been resident on the spot for 
forty years. 

As these statements came from persons of good authority, 
I was led to examine the geological circumstances more par- 
ticularly ; for I could not conceive it possible, that the mere 
wearing of the water could perform such rapid changes upon 
hard limestone. The explanation is very simple, when the 
nature of the different strata is attended to. In the first 
place, they are laid exactly horizontal, the top stratum being 
a compact calcareous rock. In the next place, I observed, 
that in proportion as the examination is carried downwards, 
the strata are found to be less and less indurated, till, at the 
distance of a hundred feet from the topmost stratum, the rock 
turns to a sort of loose shale, which crumbles to pieces under 
the touch ; and is rapidly worn away by the action of the 
blasts of wind, rising out of the pool into which this enor- 
mous cascade is projected. In process of time, as the lower 
strata are fairly eaten or worn away, the upper part of 
the rock must be left without a foundation. But, owing 
to the nature of the upper strata, they continue to pro- 
ject a long way over before they break down. There must 
come periods, however, every now and then, when the over- 



132 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

hanging rock, with such an immense load of water on its 
shouklers, will give way, and the crest or edge of the Fall 
will recede a certain distance. At the time of our visit, the 
top of the rock overhung the base, according to the rough 
estimate I made, between thirty-five and forty feet, thus 
forming a hollow space, or cave, between the falling water 
and the face of the rock. 

While the above lines Avere actually in the printer's hands, 
my eye was accidentally caught by the following paragraph 
in a newspaper : — 

" Niagara Falls. — A letter from a gentleman at that place, 
dated Dec. 30, 18.28, states, that on the Sunday evening pre- 
ceding, about nine o'clock, two or three successive shocks or 
concussions were felt, the second of which was accompanied 
by an unusual rushing sound of the waters. The next morn- 
ing it was discovered, that a large portion of the rock in the 
bed of the river, at the distance of about two-fifths from the 
Canada shore to the extreme angle of the Horse-Shoe, had 
broken off, and fallen into the abyss below. The whole aspect 
of the Falls is said to be much changed by this convulsion. 
A course of high winds for several days previous to its occur- 
rence, producing an accumulation of water in the river, is 
supposed to have been the immediate cause. This gradual 
crurabUng away of the rock over which the Niagara is pre- 
cipitated, adds plausibiHty to the conjecture, that the Falls 
were once as low down as Lewistown, and have for centuries 
been travelling up towards their present position." 

I visited on three different occasions the extraordinary 
cave formed between the cascade and the face of the overhang- 
ing clifi' — first, on the 3d of July, out of mere curiosity; 
again on the 9tli, to try some experiments with the baro- 
meter; and lastly on the 10th, in company with a friend, 
purely on account of the excitement which I found such a 
strange combination of circumstances produce. We reached 
a spot 153 feet from the outside, or entrance, by the assist- 
ance of a guide, who makes a handsome livelihood by this 
amphibious sort of pilotage. There was a tolerably good. 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 133 

green sort of light within this singular cavern; but the wind, 
blew us first in one direction, then in another, with such 
alarming violence, that I thought at first we should be fairly 
carried off our feet, and jerked into the roaring caldron 
beneath. This tempest, however, was not nearly so great an 
inconvenience as the unceasing deluges of water driven 
against us. Fortunately the direction of this gale of wind 
was always more or less upwards, from the pool below, right 
against the face of the cliffs ; were it otherwise, I fancy jt 
would be impossible to go behind the Falls, with any chance 
of coming out again. Even now there is a great appearance of 
hazard in the expedition, though experience shows that there 
is no real danger. Indeed the guide, to re-assure us, and to 
prove the difficulty of the descent, actually leaped downwards, 
to the distance of five or six yards, from the top of the bank 
of rubbish at the base of the cliffs along which the path is 
formed. • The gusts of wind rising out of the basin or pool 
below, blew so violently against him, that he easily regained 
the walk. 

This enormous cataract, like every other cascade, carries 
along with it a quantity of air, which it forces far below the 
surface of the water, — an experiment which any one may 
try on a small scale by pouring water into a tumbler from a 
height. The quantity of air thus carried down by so vast a 
river as Niagara, must be great, and the depth to which it is 
driven, in all probability, considerable. It may also be much 
condensed by the pressure ; and it will rise with proportionate 
violence both on the outside of the cascade, and within the 
sheet or curtain which forms the cataract. 

It had long been a subject of controversy, I was told, 
whether the air in the cave behind the Falls was condensed 
or rarefied ; and it was amusing to listen to the conflicting 
arguments on the subject. All parties agreed that there was 
considerable difficulty in breathing ; but while some ascribed 
this to a want of air, others asserted that it arose from the 
quantity being too great. The truth, however, obviously is. 



134 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

that we have too much water ; not too much air. For I may- 
ask, with what comfort could any man l)reathe with half a 
dozen fire-engines playing full in his face ? and positively the 
effect of the blast behind the Falls is just what that awkward 
ceremony might be supposed to produce. The direction of 
the wind is first one way and then another, crossing and 
thwarting, in a very confused style, and flinging the water 
sometimes up, sometimes down, and often whirling it round 
and round like smoke, in curls or spirals, up to the very top 
of the cave, a hundred feet above our heads, to the very 
edge of the precipice, over which we could distinctly 
see the river projected forwards, and just beginning to curve 
downwards. By the way, I took notice that, exactly in pro- 
portion to the apparent thickness of the mass of water, so 
it continued united after passing the brink. But I do not 
think, at any part of Niagara, the sheet of falling water 
remains unbroken for more than twenty feet, and that only 
at one place, well known by the name of the Green Water — 
the most sublime and impressive part of the whole Fall. At 
every other, the cascade assumes a snowy whiteness very 
shortly after it begins to descend. This appearance is aided, 
no doubt, by the blast of wind which rises from the pool on 
the outside of the sheet; for I observed that the external 
surface of the cataract was roughened, or turned up in a 
series of frothy ripples, caused either by its Mction against 
the air through which it was passing, or more probably by the 
blast rising upwards from the pool. 

I remarked another singular phenomenon, which I have 
not happened to hear mentioned before, but which is 
evidently connected with this branch of the subject. A 
number of small sharp-pointed cones of water are projected 
upwards from the pool on the outside of the Fall, sometimes 
to the height of a hundred and twenty feet. They resemble 
in form some cornets of which I have seen drawings. Their 
point, or apex, which is always turned upwards, is quite sharp, 
and not larger, I should say, than a man's fingers and thumb 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 135 

brought as nearly to a point as possible. The conical tails 
which stream from these watery meteors may vary from one 
or two yards to ten or twelve, and are spread out on all sides 
in a very curious manner. 

The lower part of the Fall, it must be observed, is so con- 
stantly hidden from the view by a thick rolling cloud of 
spray, that during ten days I never succeeded once in getting 
a glimpse of the bottom of the falling sheet ; nor do I believe 
it is ever seen. Out of this cloud, which waves backwards 
and forwards, and rises at times to the height of many 
hundred feet above the Falls, these singular cones, or cornets, 
are seen at all times jumping up. 

The altitude to which they are projected, I estimated at 
about thirty feet from the top ; which inference I was led to 
by means of the sketches made with the Camera Lucida. I 
watched my opportunity, and made dots at the points 
reached by the highest of these curious projectiles. The 
whole height being between 150 and 160 feet, the perpen- 
dicular elevation to which these jets of water are thrown 
cannot therefore be less than 110 or 120 feet above the 
surface of the pool. 

The controversy respecting the elasticity of the air behind 
the Fall was soon settled. I carried with me a barometer 
made expressly with a view to this experiment. It was of the 
most delicate kind, and furnished with two contrivances 
absolutely indispensable to the accuracy of experiments made 
under such circumstances. The first of these was a circular 
spirit-level placed on the top of the frame holding the tube, 
by which the perpendicularity of the instrument was ascer- 
tained; and, secondly, an arrangement of screws near the 
point of support, by which the tube, when duly adjusted, 
could be secured firmly in its place. By the help of these 
two inventions of Mr, Adie of Edinburgh, this instrument 
can be used with confidence, although exposed to such furious 
storms of wind and rain, as that I have been describing. 
These simple additions to the barometer, it may be men- 
tioned, give great facility to observations made for the deter- 



136 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

mination of the height of mountains, as it secures the correct 
position of the instrument, however windy the station may be. 
The mercury stood, at two stations on the outside, at 
29° 68'. The instrument was then carried behind the Falls, 
and placed near the Termination Rock, as an impassable 
angle of the cliff is called, which lies at the distance of 153 
feet from the entrance, measuring from the Canadian or 
western extremity of the Great Horse-Shoe Fall. It now 
stood at about 29° 72'. The thermometer in both cases being 
at 70° of Farenheit. The inner station was probably ten or 
twelve feet lower than the external one ; and it wall be easily 
understood, that in such a situation, with a torrent of water 
pouring over the instrument and the observer, and hard 
squalls or gusts of wdnd threatening to whisk the whole party 
into the abyss, there could be no great nicety of readings. I 
observed, that within the Fall, the mercury vibrated in the 
tube about four-hundredths of an inch, and was never per- 
fectly steady ; the highest and lowest points were therefore 
observed by the eye, and the mean recorded. During the 
external observations there was only a slight tremor visible on 
the surface of the column. In order to prevent mistakes, I 
repeated the experiment at another spot, about 120 feet within 
the entrance, when the mercury stood at about 29^^ 74' 
though still vibrating several hundredths of an inch. Upon 
the whole, then, considering that the inner stations w'ere 
lower than the external one, the small difference between 
the external and the internal readings may be ascribed to 
errors in observation, and not to any difference in the degree 
of elasticity in the air without and within the falling sheet of 
water. 

Though I was only half an hour behind the Fall, I came 
out much exhausted, partly with the bodily exertion of main- 
taining a secure footing while exposed to such buffeting and 
drenching, and partly I should suppose from the interest 
belonging to the scene, which certainly exceeded anything I 
ever witnessed before. All parts of Niagara, indeed, are on 
a scale which baffles every attempt of the imagination to 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 137 

paint, and it were ridiculous, therefore, to think of describing 
it. The ordinary materials of description, I mean analogy, 
and direct comparison with things which are more accessible, 
fail entirely in the case of that amazing cataract, which is 
altogether unique. 

Yet a great deal, I am certain, might be done by a well- 
executed panorama, drawn from below, at a station near the 
projecting angle of the rock, which must be passed, after leav- 
ing the bottom of the ladder, on the way to the cave I have 
been speaking about. An artist well versed in this peculiar 
sort of painting, might produce a picture which would 
probably distance every thing else of the kind. He must not 
however, trust to the sketches of others, but go to the Falls 
himself; and then become acquainted with those feelings 
which the actual presence of the stupendous scene is capable 
of inspiring. For without some infusion of these local senti- 
ments into his painting, were it ever so correct an outline, 
the result would be nothing more than a large picture of a 
large waterfall, instead of the noblest, and perhaps the most 
popular, of those singular works of art, which, by a species of 
magic, transport so many distant regions to our very doors. 

On Sunday night, the 8th of July, we again visited the 
Falls, and walked down to the Table Rock to view them by 
moonlight. Our expectations, as may be supposed, were 
high, but the sight was even more impressive than we had 
expected. It possessed, it is true, a more sober kind of 
interest than that belonging to the wild scene behind the 
sheet of water above described. I may mention one curious 
effect : it seemed to the imagination not impossible that the 
Fall might swell up, and grasp us in its vortex. The actual 
presence of any very powerful moving object, is often more 
or less remotely connected with a feeling that its direction 
may be changed ; and when the slightest variation would 
prove fatal, a feeling of awe is easily excited. At all events, 
as I gazed upon the cataract, it more than once appeared to 
increase in its volume, and to be accelerated in its velocity, 
till my heated fancy became strained, alarmed, and so much 



138 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

overcrowded with new and old images, all exaggerated, that, 
in spite of the conviction that the whole was nonsense, I felt 
obliged to draw back from the edge of the rock ; and it 
required a little reflection, and some resolution, to advance 
again to the brink. 

On the 1st of August, 1827, I drove once more to the 
Falls, intending merely to bid good-by to them, and come 
away, I therefore left the carriage at the top of the bank, 
and said to the coachman that he need not take out his 
horses, but wait in the shade before the inn, till I came up 
again from the Table Rock. Tiiis was at noon, but it was 
not till three o'clock that I could disentangle myself from the 
scene. Indeed, to speak without exaggeration or affectation, 
I must own, that upon this visit — the last, in all human 
probability, I shall ever pay to these Falls — I was almost 
overwhelmed (if that be the proper word to use) with the 
grandeur of this extraordinary spectacle. I felt, as it were, 
staggered and confused, and at times experienced a sensation 
bordering on alarm — I did not well know at what — a strong 
mysterious sort of impression that something dreadful might 
happen. At one moment I looked upon myself as utterly 
insignificant in the presence of such a gigantic, moving, 
thundering body — and in the next, was puffed up with a 
sort of pride and arrogant satisfaction that I was admitted 
into such company, and that I was not altogether wasting the 
opportunity : at others 1 gave up the reins of my imagination 
altogether, and then tried to follow, but with no great success, 
some of the innumerable trains of wild and curious reflec- 
tions which arose in consequence — though, after all, nothing 
can be conceived more vague than those wandering thoughts, 
except it be their present ghostlike recollection. 

During three hours, which I am disposed to reckon as the 
most interesting of my whole life, my mind was often brought 
back from such fanciful vagaries with a sudden start^only, 
however, to relapse again and again. More than once I 
really almost forgot where I was, and became more than half 
conscious that I saw millions and millions of tons of water 



CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. 139 

dashing down before me at every second, at the distance of 
only a few yards ; and even ceased to recollect that the 
sound I heard came from the greatest cascade in the world. 
Still, however, in spite of these abstractions — which I made 
no attempt to restrain — I was all the while sensible that 
something very delightful was passing. 

The effect of this mighty cataract upon the mind, might 
perhaps be worthy of the attention of a metaphysician. 
With me, at least, the influence of one overpowering but 
indefinite sensation absorbed the active operation of the 
senses, and produced a kind of dizzy reverie, more or less 
akin to sleep, or rather to the intoxication described by opium- 
eaters, during which a thousand visions arose connected with 
the general sentiment of sublimity. And it may help to give 
some idea of the extravagant length to which the over- 
indulged fancy can carry the dreamer on such occasions, to 
mention that once, for some seconds, I caught myself think- 
ing that I had fairly left this lower world for the upper sky — 
that I was traversing the heavens in company with Sir Isaac 
Newton, — and that the sage was just going to tell me about 
the distance of the fixed stars ! 

The awakening, if so it may be called, from these roving 
commissions of the mind, to the stupendous reality, so far 
from being accompanied by the disappointment which usually 
attends the return-voyage from these distant regions in the 
world of fancy, was gratifying far beyond what I remember 
to have experienced upon any former occasion, during a life 
of pretty constant and high enjoyment. 

This, and a hundred other extravagances which I could 
add upon the subject, however absurd they must of course 
seem in sober prose, may possibly give some notion of the 
effect produced by looking at the Falls of Niagara — an 
effect analogous, perhaps, to that produced on the mind of 
the poet by ordinary circumstances, but which less imagi- 
native mortals are made conscious of only on very extraor- 
dinary occasions. 

K 2 



140 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



BATTLES BRIDGES.— PLACES OF RESORT.— MINERALS, &c. 

In the immediate vicinity of the Falls, many incidents have 
occurred to impart au additional interest. This was the 
scene of a number of battles fought during the last war 
with Great Britain ; those at Fort Erie, ChippcAva, and 
Lundy's Lane, were among the most bloody and hard fought 
that are recorded in history. In the battle near Fort Erie^ 
there was what has generally been considered, a military 
chef-d^oeuvre ; the Americans, to the number of 1000 
regulars and 1000 of the militia, made a sortie and took the 
British works about 500 yards from their line, and returned 
in triumph. The battles in this region occurred in the fol- 
lowing order, viz : at Queenston, October 13, 1812 ; at York, 
April 27, 1813 ; at Fort George, May 27, do. ; at Stoney 
Creek, June 5, do. ; at Beaver Dam, June 21, do. ; Naval 
Battle on Lake Erie, September 10, do. ; the village of 
Niagara Falls, Lewiston, and Youngstown liurnt, December 
19, do. ; Buffalo and Black Rock burnt, December 31, do. ; 
Fort Erie taken July 3, 1814 ; battle of Chippewa, July 6, 
do. ; at Bridgewater or Lundy^s Lane, July 25, do. ; at Fort 
Erie, August 15, and September 17, 1814. The burning of 
villages and plunder of property on the frontier, are still 
remembered, and the circumstances detailed with thrilling 
interest, by many of the inhabitants. 

In the year 1817, a bridge was constructed from the shore 
across the rapids to the head of Goat Island, but was swept 
away by the ice the ensuing spring. The present bridge was 
constructed in 1818, and is forty-four rods in length, exclu- 
sive of Bath Island. This bridge, though crossing the foam- 
ing rapids only sixty-four rods above the Falls, over which 
visitors are at first disposed to Avalk lightly and with quick- 
ened pace, is perfectly safe for all kinds of teams and 
carriages, and seems destined to stand a great length of time. 
Multitudes inquire, with wonder and eager curiosity, how it 



BATTLES, BRIDGES, ETC. 141 

could have been constructed in this imminently dangerous 
place. 

They shall be informed ; and they will see that, like a 
thousand other difficult things, it was easily accomplished, 
when the mode was ascertained. Two very long timbers 
were thrust out from the shore on an abutment, having the 
forward ends elevated a little above the rapids and tlie others 
firmly secured upon the bank : these were then covered with 
plank for a temporary bridge. At the extremity of this 
bridge, very large stones were let down into the river, around 
which timbers were sunk, locked together so as to form a 
frame, which was afterwards filled with stone. To this, con- 
stituting the first pier, a firm bridge was then constructed, 
and the temporary bridge shoved forward so as to build 
a second pier like the first, and so on till the whole was com- 
pleted. The honour of projecting and constructing this 
bridge belongs jointly and equally to the proprietors, the Hon. 
Augustus and General Peter B. Porter. 

Till the year 1817, there was no way of descending or 
ascending the bank below the Falls, except by a ladder, about 
one hundred feet in length : since then a safe and convenient 
flight of stairs has been built, by which visitors can have an 
easy descent to the ferry, and an opportunity to pass a con- 
siderable distance behind the magnificent sheet of water. 
Perhaps there is no place where the height of the Fall is so 
impressively realized as here. 

There are a number of pretty establishments at the Falls, 
where are kept on hand rich specimens of the mineral fossil, 
vegetable and animal productions of the vicinity. Among 
these establishments, as a place of resort, Mr. W. E. 
Hulett's, deserves a conspicuous notice. His place is 
directly opposite the Cataract Hotel, and visitors will there 
find a library, reading-room, billiard-room, &c. &c., and a 
most splendid collection of minerals, both from the vicinity 
of the Falls, and from other parts of the United States. 

Mr. A. B. Jacobs, on Bath Island, Mr. S. Hooker, and 
some others, on the American side ; and Mr. Barnett, at his 



142 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

IMuseum, INIr. Starkey and Mr. Slmltersburgh, on the Canada 
sidcj keep on hand an assortment of mineralogical speci- 
mens, a variety of elegant articles of Indian manufacture, 
caneSj &c. Among the minerals kept for sale, are trans- 
parent selenites ; snow-white gypsum ; calcareous, bitter, 
dog-tooth, and fluor spar ; crystallized quartz ; petrifactions ; 
favasites and other fossils ; shells, &c. . There are also some 
uoble sj)ecimens of bald and gray eagles, with which this 
region abounds. 



THE HERMIT OF THE FALLS.— BY MRS. SIGOURNEY. 

It was the leafy month of June, 
And joyous nature all in tune. 

With ■wreathing buds was drest. 
As towards Niagara's fearful side 

A youthful stranger prest ; 
His ruddy cheek was blanched with awe, 
And scarce he seemed his breath to draw. 

While bending o'er its brim. 
He marked its strong, unfathomed tide. 

And heard its thunder-hymn. 

His measured week too quickly fled. 
Another, and another sped, 
And soon the summer-rose decayed, 
The moon of autumn sank in shade, 
Years filled their circle, brief and fair, 
Yet still the enthusiast lingered there, 

Till winter hurled its dart. 
For deeper round his soul was wove 
A mystic chain of quenchless love. 

That w ould not let him part 
Wlien darkest midnight veiled the sky, 
You'd hear his hasting step go by, 



THE HERMIT OF THE FALLS. 143 

To gain the bridge beside the deep, 
That where its wildest torrents leap 

Hung threadlike o'er the surge. 

Just there, upon its awful verge, 
His vigil hour to keep. 

And when the moon descending low. 

Hung on the flood that gleaming bow, 

"Which it would seem some angel's hand. 

With heaven's own pencil, tinged and spanned. 

Pure symbol of a Better Land, 

He, kneeling, poured in utterance free 

The eloquence of ecstasy ; 

Though to his words no answer came, 

Save that One, Everlasting Name, 

Which since Creation's morning broke, 

Niagara's lip alone hath spoke. 

When wintry tempests shook the sky. 
And the rent pine-tree hurtled by, 
Unblenching mid the storm he stood, 
And marked, sublime, the wrathful flood. 
While wrought the frost-king fierce and drear. 
His palace mid those clifi's to rear. 
And strike the massy buttress strong, 
And pile his sleet the rocks among. 
And wasteful deck the branches bare 
With icy diamonds, rich and rare. 

Nor lacked the hermit's humble shed 

Such comforts as our nature ask 

To fit them for their daily task. 
The cheering fire, the peaceful bed. 
The simple meal in season spread : — 
While by the lone lamp's trembling light. 
As blazed the hearth-stone clear and bright. 
O'er Homer's page he hung, 



144 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Or Maro's martial numbers scanned, 
For classic lore of many a land 

Flowed smoothly o'er his tongue. 
Oft with rapt eye, and skill profound, 
He woke the entrancing viol's sound. 

Or touched the sweet guitar, 
Since heavenly music deigned to dwell 
An inmate in his cloistered cell. 

As beams the solemn star 
All night, with meditative eyes. 
Where some lone rock -bound fountain lies. 

As through the groves with quiet tread. 
On his accustomed haunts he sped. 
The mother-thrush unstartled sung 
Her descant to her callow young. 
And fearless o'er his threshold prest 
The wanderer from the sparrow's nest ; 
The squirrel raised a sparkling eye. 
Nor from his kernel cared to fly. 
As passed that gentle hermit by ; 
No timid creature shrank to meet 
His pensive glance serenely sweet ; 
From his own kind, alone, he sought 
The screen of solitary thought. 
Whether the world too harshly prest. 
Its iron o'er a yielding breast. 
Or taught his morbid youth to prove 
The pang of unrequited love. 
We know not, for he never said 
Aught of the life that erst he led. 

On Iris isle, a summer bower 

He twined with branch, and vine, and flower. 

And there he mused, on rustic seat. 

Unconscious of the noon-day heat. 

Or 'neath the crystal waters lay 

Luxuriant, in the swimmer's play. 



THE HERMIT OF THE FALLS. 145 

Yet once the whelming flood grew strong, 
And bore him like a weed along, 
Though Avith convulsive grasp of pain, 
And heaving breast, he strove in vain. 
Then sinking ^neath the infuriate tide, 
Lone as he lived, the hermit died. 

On, by the rushing current swept. 
The lifeless corse its voyage kept. 
To where, in narrow gorge comprest. 
The whirling eddies never rest. 
But boil with wild tumultuous sway. 
The maelstrom of Niagara. 
And there within that rocky bound. 
In swift gyrations round and round. 

Mysterious course it held. 
Now springing from the torrent hoarse. 
Now battling as with maniac force, 
To mortal strife compelled. 

Right fearful 'neath the moombeam bright, 
It was to see that brow so white, 

And mark the ghastly dead 
Leap upward from his torture-bed. 

As if in passion-gust. 
And tossing wild with agony. 
To mock the omnipotent decree. 

Of dust to dust. 

At length, Avhere smoother waters flow. 

Emerging from the gulf below. 

The hapless youth they gained, and bore 

Sad to his own forsaken door : 

There watched his dog, with straining eye. 

And scarce would let the train pass by. 

Save that with instinct's rushing spell, 
Through the changed cheek's empurpled hue, 
And stifi^ and stony form, he knew 

The master he had loved so well. 



146 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

The kitten fair, whose graceful wile 

So oft had won his musing smile, 

As round his slippered foot she played. 

Stretched on his vacant pillow laid. 

While strewed around, on board and chair, 
The last plucked flower, the book last read, 
The ready pen, the page outspread. 
The water-cruse, the unbroken bread. 

Revealed how sudden was the snare 
That swept him to the dead. 

And so he rests in foreign earth. 
Who drew mid Albion^s vales his birth ; 
Yet let no cynic phrase unkind 
Condemn that youth of gentle mind. 
Of shrinking nerve and lonely heart, 
And lettered lore, and tuneful art. 

Who here his humble worship paid 
In that most glorious temple-shrine, 
Where to the Majesty divine 

Nature her noblest altar made. 

No, blame him not, but praise the Power 
Who in the dear, domestic bower. 
Hath given you firmer strength to rear 
The plant of love, with toil and fear. 
The beam to meet, the blast to dare, 
And like a faithful soldier bear; 
Still with sad heart his requiem pour. 
Amid the cataract^s ceaseless roar. 
And bid one tear of pitying gloom 
Bedew that meek enthusiast's tomb. 

About fifteen years since, in the glow of early summer, a 
young stranger, of pleasing countenance and person, made 
his appearance at Niagara. It was at first conjectiu-ed that 
he might be an artist, as a large portfolio, with books and 
musical instruments, were observed among his baggage. He 



THE HERMIT OF THE FALLS. 147 

was deeply impressed by the majesty and sublimity of the 
cataract, and its surrouudiug scenery^ and expressed an 
intention to remain a week, that he might examine it accu- 
rately. But the fascination which all minds of sensibility 
feel, in the presence of that glorious work of the Creator, 
grew strongly upon him, and he was heard to say, that six 
weeks were inadequate to become acquainted with its 
outlines. 

At the end of that period, he was still unable to tear him- 
self away, and desired to " build there a tabernacle,'' that he 
might indulge both in his love of solitary musings, and of 
nature's sublimity. He applied for a spot upon the island of 
the " Three Sisters," where he might construct a cottage after 
his own model, which comprised, among other peculiarities, 
isolation by means of a drawbridge. Circumstances forbid- 
ding a compliance with his request, he took up his residence in 
an old house upon Iris Island, which he rendered as comfort- 
able as the state of the case would admit. Here he con- 
tinued about twenty months, until the intrusion of a family 
interrupted his recluse habits. He then quietly withdrew, 
and reared for himself a less commodious shelter, near Pros- 
pect Point. His simple and favourite fare of bread and milk 
was readily purchased, and whenever he required other food, 
he preferred to prepare it with his own hands. 

When bleak winter came, a cheerful fire of wood blazed 
upon his hearth, and by his evening lamp he beguiled the 
hours with the perusal of books in various languages, and 
with sweet music. It was almost surprising to hear, in such 
depth of solitude, the long-drawn, thrilling tones of the viol, 
or the softest melodies of the flute, gushing forth from that 
low-browed hut ; or the guitar, breathing out so lightly, amid 
the rush and thunder of the never-slumbering torrent. 

Yet, though the world of letters was familiar to his mind, 
and the living world to his observation, for he had travelled 
widely, both in his native Europe, and the East, he sought 
not association with mankind, to unfold, or to increase his 
stores of knowledge. Those who had heard him converse. 



148 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

spoke with surprise and admiration of his colloquial powers^ 
his command of language, and the spirit of eloquence that 
flowed from his lips. But he seldom, and sparingly, admitted 
this intercourse, studiously avoiding society, though there 
seemed in his nature nothing of moroseness or misanthropy. 
On the contrary, he showed kindness to even the humblest 
animal. Birds instinctively learned it, and freely entered his 
dwelling, to receive from his hands crumbs or seeds. 

But the absorbing delight of his existence was communion 
with the mighty Niagara. Here, at every hour of the day or 
night, he might be seen, a fervent worshipper. At gray dawn, 
he went to visit it in its fleecy veil ; at high noon, he ban- 
queted on the full splendour of its glory ; beneath the soft 
tinting of the lunar bow, he lingered, looking for the angel's 
wing, whose pencil had painted it ; and at solemn midnight, 
he knelt, soul-subdued, as on the footstool of Jehovah. 
Neither storms, nor the piercing cold of winter, prevented 
his visits to this great temple of his adoration. 

When the frozen mists, gathering upon the lofty trees, 
seemed to have transmuted them to columns of alabaster, 
when every branch, and shrub, and spray, glittering with 
transparent ice, waved in the sunbeam its coronet of 
diamonds, he gazed, unconscious of the keen atmosphere, 
charmed and chained by the rainbow-cinctured cataract. His 
feet had worn a beaten path from his cottage thither. There 
was, at that time, an extension of the Terrapin Bridge, by 
a single shaft of timber, carried out ten feet over the fathom- 
less abyss, where it hung tremulously, guarded only by a rude 
parapet. To this point he often passed and repassed, amid the 
darkness of night. He even took pleasure in grasping it with 
his hands, and thus suspending himself over the awful gulf; 
so much had his morbid enthusiasm learned to feel, and even 
to revel, amid the terribly sublime. 

Among his favourite, daily gratifications, was that of bath- 
ing. The few who interested themselves in his welfare, 
supposed that he pursued it to excess, and protracted it after 
the severity of the weather rendered it hazardous to health. 



THE HERMIT OF THE FALLS. 149 

He scooped out, and arranged for himself, a secluded and 
romantic bath, between Moss and Iris Islands. Afterwards, 
he formed the habit of bathing below the principal Fall. One 
bright, but ratlier chill day, in the month of June, 1831_, 
a man employed about the ferry, saw him go into the water, 
and a long time after, observed his clothes to be still lying 
upon the bank. 

Inquiry was made. The anxiety was but too well founded. 
The poor hermit had indeed taken his last bath. It was sup- 
posed that cramp might have been induced by the unwonted 
chill of the atmosphere or water. Still the body was not 
found, the depth and force of the current just below, being 
exceedingly great. 

In the course of their search, they passed onward to the 
whirlpool. There, amid those boiling eddies, was the pallid 
corse, making fearful and rapid gyrations upon the face of 
the black waters. At some point of suction, it suddenly 
plunged and disappeared. Again emerging, it was fearful 
to see it leap half its length above the flood, and with a face 
so deadly pale, play among the tossing billows, then float 
motionless, as if exhausted, and anon, returning to the 
encounter, spring, struggle, and contend like a maniac 
battling with mortal foes. 

It was strangely painful to think that he was not permitted 
to find a grave, even beneath the waters he had loved ; that 
all the gentleness and charity of his nature, should be 
changed by death to the fury of a madman; and that the 
king of terrors, who brings repose to the despot and the man 
of blood, should teach warfare to him who had ever worn the 
meekness of the lamb. For days and nights this terrible 
purgatory was prolonged. It was on the 21st of June that, 
after many eff'orts, they were enabled to bear the weary dead 
back to his desolate cottage. 

There they found his faithful dog guarding the door. 
Heavily must the long period have worn away, while he 
watched for his only friend, and wondered why he delayed 
his coming. He scrutinized the approaching group suspici- 



150 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

ously, and would not willingly have given them admittance, 
save that a low, stifled wail at length announced his intuitive 
knowledge of the master, whom the work of death had 
eflFectually disguised from the eyes of men. 

They laid him on his bed, the thick, dripping masses of his 
beautiful hair clinging to, and veiling the features so late 
expressive and comely. On the pillow was his pet kitten : to 
her, also, the watch for the master had been long and weari- 
some. 

In his chair lay the guitar, whose melody was probably the 
last that his ear heard on earth. There were also his flute 
and violin, his portfolio and books, scattered and open, as if 
recently used. On the spread table was the untasted meal 
for noon, which he had prepared against his return from that 
bath which had proved so fatal. It was a touching sight ; the 
dead hermit mourned by his humble retainers, the poor 
animals who loved him, and ready to be laid by stranger- 
hands, in a foreign grave. 

So fell this singular and accomplished being, at the early 
age of twenty-eight. Learned in the languages, in the 
arts and sciences, improved by extensive travel, gifted with 
personal beauty and a feeling heart, the motives for this 
estrangement from his kind are still enveloped in mystery. 
It was, however, known that he was a native of England, 
where his father was a clergyman; that he received from 
thence ample remittances for his comfort ; and that his name 
was Francis Abbot. These facts had been previously ascer- 
tained, but no written papers were found in his cell, to throw 
additional light upon the obscurity in which he had so eff"ec- 
tually wrapped the history of his pilgrimage. 

That he was neither an ascetic nor a misanthrope, has been 
sufficiently proved. Why he should choose to withdraw from 
society, which he was so well fitted to benefit and to adorn, 
must ever remain unexplained. That no crime had driven 
him thence, his blameless and pious life bare witness to all 
who knew him. 

It might seem that no plan of seclusion had been deli- 



REV. R. C. WATERSTON. 151 

berately formed^ until enthusiastic admiration of the unpar- 
alleled scenery among which he was cast, induced, and for 
two years had given it permanence. And if any one could 
be justified for withdrawing from life's active duties, to dAvell 
awhile with solitude and contemplation, would it not be in 
a spot like this, where nature ever speaks audibly of her 
majestic and glorious Author? 

We visited, in the summer of 1844, the deserted abode of 
the hermit. It was partially ruinous, but we traced out its 
different compartments, and the hearth - stone, where his 
winter evenings passed amid books and music, his faithful 
dog at his feet, and on his knee his playful, happy kitten. 

At our entrance, a pair of nesting - birds flew forth 
affrighted. Methought they were fitting representatives of 
that gentle spirit, which would not have disturbed their 
tenantry, or harmed the trusting sparrow. If that spirit 
had endured aught from man, which it might neither recover 
nor reveal; if the fine balance of the intellect had borne 
pressure until it was injured or destroyed ; we would not 
stand upon the sufferer's grave to condemn, but to pity. 

We would think with tenderness of thee, erring and lonely 
brother. For at the last day, when the secrets of all are 
unveiled, it will be found that there are sadder mistakes to 
deplore than thine : — time wasted idly, but not innocently, — 
and talents perverted, without the palliation of a virtuous 
life, the love of nature, or the fear of God. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER ADDRESSED TO MISS CARPENTER, 
OF BRISTOL, ENGLAND. 

(By the Rev. R. C. Waterston, of Boston, America.) 

" Oct. 1844. 

" It was the first time I had visited the Falls. Two miles 
above these we could distinctly see the foaming breakers of 
the ' rapids,' dashing up twenty or thirty feet. We arrived 
at the Chfton Hotel about noon ; and there before us 



153 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

thundered Niagara. We went over to Table Kock. Who 
can describe that scene ? One mass of water, 2000 feet in 
extent, rolling majestically over a perpendicular height of 
160 feet ; one dense, awful mass of unbroken water, like an 
ocean bursting from its confines ; and the water of the most 
exquisite colour that can be conceived ; a transparent green, 
more beautiful than anything I ever beheld, rolliiDg, rushing 
down into the boiling abyss, from which rises up for ever the 
dense and sparkling foam and mist, crowned with resplendent 
rainbows. We went down to the foot of Table Rock. I never 
felt as at that spot ; I do not think it possible to feel any- 
where else as there. We remained at the Falls four days; 
two on the American, and two on the British side. To behold 
this cataract, three-fourths of a mile in extent, coming down 
as from the very heavens, — is an era in one's life ; it is worth 
crossing the Atlantic to behold." 

The following lines were written in June 1844, at Niagara, 
by the writer of the preceding letter: 

. . . '^ Thou look'st eternal ! But the time shall be, 
When thou, dread torrent, shalt be seen no more. 
When God shall seal the fountains of thy sea. 
And hush the mighty thunders of thy roar. 
Chaos may rend thine adamantine floor ; 
The heavens and earth be shrivell'd as a scroll : 
Then what art thou to JNIan, whose mind shall soar 
Above the wreck of worlds, a living soul. 
To press for ever on while endless ages roll !" 



INCIDENTS. 

Men have occasionally been drawn into the rapids with their 
boats, and carried over the Falls ; but not a vestige of them 
or their boats has scarcely ever been found. The great depth 
of the water below, and the tumultuous agitation occasioned 
by the eddies, whirlpools, and counter-currents, make it next 



INCIDENTS. 153 

to impossible for anything once sunk to rise again, until 
carried so far down the stream as to make fruitless any 
research. 

In the year 1820, two men, in a state of intoxication, fell 
asleep in their scow Avhich was fastened at the mouth of 
Chippewa Creek ; while there, it broke away, and they awoke 
finding themselves beyond the reach of hope, dashing over the 
rapids. . 

In the year 1822, two others, engaged in removing some 
furniture from Grand Island, were by some carelessness 
drawn into the rapids, and hurried over the cataract. 

In 1825, two more, in attempting to smuggle some whiskey 
across to Chippewa, were hurried into the rapids and shared 
a similar fate. A story has frequently been told of an Indian, 
who fell asleep in his canoe some miles above, and awoke in 
the midst of the rapids ; perceiving that all efforts to escape 
would be vain, he turned his bottle of whiskey down his 
throat, and composedly awaited the awful plunge. This story 
the writer believes to be fabulous, as he has never been able 
to find any foundation for it, except that it is a stereotype 
Indian story, told as having happened at all the difi'erent Falls 
in the country. 

In September 1827, notice having been given in the news- 
papers that the Michigan, a large vessel that had run on Lake 
Erie, would be sent over the Falls, thirty thousand people, it 
was supposed, assembled to witness the novel spectacle. On 
board of this vessel were put two bears, a buffalo, two 
raccoons, a dog, and a goose ; the bears leaped off in the 
midst of the rapids, and, miraculously almost, finally reached 
the shore in safety. The others went over and perished. 
The Michigan, before she reached the Falls, having been con- 
siderably broken in the rapids, sunk to a level with the sur- 
face, and went over near the centre of the Horse- Shoe Fall. 
The distance from deck to keel was sixteen feet; and as she 
did not appear to touch the bottom for eighty rods before she 
went over, the conchision is, that the water as it passes over 
the precipice there must be at least twenty feet deep. 



154 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

In October 1829, another A^essel, the Superior, was adver- 
tised to be sent over, which drew together about fifteen 
thousand people. This vessel lodged in the rapids and 
remained a number of weeks, and finally passed over the 
Falls in the night. 

In August 1828, a small sloop, abandoned by the men 
through fright, near tlie mouth of Chippewa Creek, was 
blown with all her sails up, so far across the river as to come 
down on the American side of Goat Island ; but was broken 
to a perfect wreck in the rapids, so as to pass under the bridge 
and over the Falls. 

In July 1832, a canal boat was blown over from Chippewa, 
and lodged in the rapids a short distance above the bridge. 
Some men and one woman were on board, and were saved 
at most imminent peril, and the boat was finally secured and 
drawn ashore. 

The rock at the Falls is hard limestone to the depth 
of about seventy feet, below which it is loose, crumbling 
shale, which is constantly wearing away and leaving a pro- 
jection of the limestone. 

A mass of Table Rock, 160 feet in length and from thirty 
to forty feet in width, fell off in July 1818, with a tremendous 
crash. On the 9th of December 1828, three immense 
portions broke from the Horse-Shoe Fall, causing a shock like 
an earthquake. Another large portion fell in the summer of 
1829, and the noise it occasioned was heard several miles. 
And yet, judging from the published accounts of the Falls, 
which reach back nearly two hundred years, there has been 
but very little recession of the Falls within that period. 

In October 1829, Sam Patch jumped twice, in the presence 
of thousands of spectators, from the top of a ladder ninety- 
seven feet high, into the eddy below the Falls. This ladder 
was erected directly below the Biddle-Staircase. Poor Sam 
afterwards lost his life by jumping from the Falls of Genesee 
Hiver, at Rochester. 

May 19, 1835, two men in attempting to pass down the 
river from Tonawanda to Chippewa in a scow, were driven by 



INCIDENTS. 155 

the winds into the rapids, and one of them went over the 
Falls ; the other, after leaping from the scow, reached a shoal 
where he could stand in the water with his head out. In this 
situation he was seen from the American shore; and two 
men, at the imminent hazard of their lives, went out in 
a hoat, and succeeded in saving him, and returning safely 
to shore. 

Again, June 10, 1835, two men, in passing from Schlosser 
to Chippewa, in a skiflF, were drawn into the rapids, and 
hurried to destruction. While in the rapids, they were seen 
for a short time by persons on the Pavilion. Some days 
afterwards, their bodies were found in an eddy a mile below 
the Falls, one of which was deprived of a leg and an arm. 

Another melancholy incident happened on the night of 
December 29, 1837, while tlie patriots were in possession of 
Navy Island. The steamboat Caroline, Avhile lying at Schlos- 
ser, was at midnight attacked by a party of Canadian soldiers 
and one person killed. She was then towed out into the 
stream, set on fire, and was carried over the Falls by the 
current. Nothing was to be found of her the next morning 
except a small quantity of the wreck, which was thrown upon 
the shore below the Falls. The history of this boat was 
somewhat singular; she was originally built at Charleston, 
South Carolina, Avas from thence brought to New York, from 
thence to Albany, and from Albany she was brought through 
the Erie and Oswego Canals to Lake Ontario, and from Lake 
Ontario through the Welland Canal to Chippewa, U. C, 
between which place and BuflPalo she plied for some time as a 
passage-boat ; until she was seized by the Collector of Buffalo, 
condemned, and sold for a violation of the revenue laws, and 
at length, during the Canadian disturbances, finished her 
career by a leap down the awful abyss of Niagara. 

An occurrence of the most thrilling interest took place 
July 25, 1839, while the workmen were employed in repairing 
the bridge to Iris Island. 

A man by the name of Chapin, while at work upon a 
staging, about 100 feet from the island, accidentally lost his 

l2 



156 DESCRIPTIOXS 0¥ NIAGARA. 

footing and was precipitated into the rapids, and in an instant 
swept away towards the great cataract. Speedy destruction 
seemed to await him ; but fortunately he was uninjured by the 
fall, and in this condition retained his self-possession. He 
succeeded, by great dexterity in swimming, in effecting a 
landing upon a little island, the outermost of a group of little 
cedar islands, situated some thirty or forty yards above the 
Falls, between Goat Island and the American shore. 

There he remained for an hour, looking beseechingly back 
upon the spectators who lined the shore, among whom were 
his wife and children, and with whom he could hold no com- 
munication on account of the distance and the roar of the 
Falls. In this emergency, Mr. J. R. Robinson^ a man of 
extraordinary strength and intrepidity, and an excellent 
boatman, generously volunteered his serA'ices to attempt his 
rescue. A light boat of two oars, similar to the Whitehall 
race-boats, was soon procured, and he embarked. 

He proceeded with great deliberation and skill, darting his 
little boat across the rapid channels, and at the intervening 
eddies, holding up, to survey his situation and recover 
strength. As he neared the island, a rapid channel still inter- 
vened, rendering the attempt to land very hazardous. He 
paused for a moment; and then with all his strength, darted 
across and sprang from his boat — his foot slipped, and he fell 
backward into the rapid current. With the most consum- 
mate coolness and skill, he retained his grasp on the boat, 
sprang in, and seizing his oars, brought up under the lee of 
the little island. Still the great labour and hazard of the 
undertaking remained to be overcome. Robinson proved 
equal to the task. Taking his companion on board in the 
same careful and deliberate manner, though at infinitely 
greater hazard and labour, they effected a safe landing upon 
Goat Island. There the spectators assembled to give them a 
cordial greeting. A scene of great excitement ensued. The 
boat was drawn upon the bank, and by acclamation a collec- 
tion was taken up on the spot for Chapin and his noble- 
hearted deliverer. It was generously made, and thankfully 



VILLAGE OF NIAGARA FALLS. 157 

received ; but the reflection to Robiuson that he has rescued 
a fellow-creature under such circumstances^ will be to his 
generous heart a much richer and more lasting reward. 
Robinson and Chapin were placed in the boat by the spec- 
tators and carried in triumph^ to the village. 



VILLAGE OF NIAGARA FALLS.— NUMBER OF VISITORS. 

The country in the immediate vicinity of the Falls on both 
sides of the river, presents many powerful attractions for 
a permanent residence. For salubrity of air and healthful- 
iiess of climate, it yields to no spot in the United States. 
Here, 

" Nature hath 
The very soul of music in her looks, 
The sunshine and the shade of poetry." 

The latitude here is forty-three degrees six minutes north, 
and the longitude two degrees six minutes west from Wash- 
ington. The winters are generally much milder than in New 
England, owing, as supposed, to the action of the two neigh- 
bouring lakes, that lie on either side. 

In a pamphlet published in London in the year 1834, 
written by Robert Burford, Esq., who spent the summer and 
autumn of 1833, in taking a panoramic view of the Falls, it 
is stated that this place is "without all question, the most 
healthful of any on the continent of North America. The 
heat of summer can there be borne with pleasure, while at 
the same time, the annoyance of musquitoes and other 
insects is unknown. Various are the conjectures whence 
arises the remarkable salubrity of this region ; but the most 
natural is, that the agitation of the surrounding air produced 
by the tremendous Falls, combines with the elevation and 
dryness of the soil, and absence of swamps, to produce this 
happy result." 

In the summer of 1832, when the cholera raged in all the 



158 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



villages around, as Buffalo, Lockport, Lewiston, &c., not 
a single case occurred here. Again, when this disease visited 
many villages in the vicinity, in the summer of 1834, this 
place was wholly exempt. 

The village of Niagara Falls on the American side, for- 
merly called Manchester, contains about 500 inhabitants. 

There are two spacious hotels in the village, the Eagle and 
the Cataract, which will accommodate a large number of 
permanent guests. The latter is kept by Gen. P. Whitney 
& Sons, favourably known here in the business. Gen. 
Whitney has been engaged in this business for nearly twenty 
years. The Eagle Hotel, formerly kept by T. W. Fanning, 
and now by Messrs. C. B. Griffon & Co. A most splendid 
hotel was commenced by the celebrated Benjamin Rathbun, 
in the year 1836, and the foundation and basement were 
completed, when the astounding development of that per- 
son's affairs rendered it necessary for him to assign all his 
property, and all operations on the building in question 
ceased. It is hoped, however, that the building will be com- 
pleted by the present proprietors. The village also contains 
a Presbyterian Church, and a " Union House," for the use of 

all other denominations when they choose to come to it. 

It has a Paper Mill, a Flouring Mill, and a few Mechanics' 
shops ; and there is an opportunity of using water here to 
an unlimited extent. 

Canal boats and sloops come from the Erie Canal and the 
Lake to Porter's Store-house, a short distance above the 
Falls. There are three railroads now finished, which termi- 
nate at Niagara Falls. One from Buffalo^ distant twenty- 
two miles — one from Lockport, and one from Lewiston. 
Stage-coaches run from the Falls in all directions, and the 
mail passes regularly twice every day. The roads from 
Buffalo, Lewiston, and Lockport are now very good; equal 
to any in this region, and afford to travellers many delightful 
views of the river, the Falls, and the rapids ;— especially as 
the road from Buffalo to Lewiston passes very near the bank 
of the river the whole distance. The steamljoat Red Jacket 



VILLAGE OF NIAGARA FALLS. 159 

also runs daily from Buffalo to tlie landing, two miles above 
tlie Falls, and thence across to Chippewa^ and returns daily 
by tlie same route. This is a perfectly safe and very pleasant 
route to the Falls. At Lewiston, seven miles below, steam- 
boats from Lake Ontario are daily bringing and receiving 
passengers. Near Lewiston commences the celebrated Ridge 
Road, — formerh^j without doubt, a sand-bank on the margin 
of Lake Ontario, — and runs east to Rochester, and thence 
nearly to Oswego, a distance of about 140 miles. It ruus 
parallel with the lake, from six to ten miles distant, is from 
forty to eighty yards Avide, thirty feet higher than the conti- 
guous land, and 139 feet higher than the lake. It is an 
excellent road at all seasons of the year. 

The number of visitors at the Falls has of late years been 
from twelve to fifteen thousand annually, and the number is 
every year increasing. On the occasion of sending the 
Michigan over the Falls, some years since, from thirty to 
fifty thousand persons were supposed to be here together ; 
and when the Superior was sent over, fifteen thousand. The 
fashionable, the opulent, and the learned, congregate here 
from the principal cities of the country ; from the Southern 
and Western States, South America, the West Indies, the 
Canadas, all parts of Europe, and indeed from all countries. 

Exiled monarchs, foreign ambassadors, whigs, tories, radi- 
cals, royalists, naval and military officers, governors, judges, 
lawyers, senators, &c., with a good proportion of female 
worthies, assemble here to view these indescribable works of 
God, One of these last, during a visit here in the summer 
of 1834, penned the following beautiful lines, which are 
worthy of being preserved as a memorial of female worth 
and genius. 

NIAGARA. 

Flow on for ever, in thy glorious robe 
Of terror and of beauty ! God hath set 
His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud 
Mantles around thy feet. And he doth give 



IGO DESCUIPTIONS OF NIAGARA, 

The voice of thunder, power to speak of Him 
Eternally — bidding the lip of man 
Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour 
Incense of awe-stricken praise. 

And who can dare 
To lift the insect trump of earthly Hope, 
Or Love, or Sorrow, — mid the peal sublime 
Of thy tremendous hymn ? — E'en Ocean shrinks 
Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild waves 
Retire abashed. — For he doth sometimes seem 
To sleep like a spent labourer, and recall 
His weary billows from their vexing play. 
And lull them in a cradle calm ; — but thou. 
With everlasting, undecaying tide. 
Dost rest not, night or day. 

The morning stars. 
When first they sang o'er young Creation's birth. 
Heard thy deep anthem — and those wreaking fires 
That wait th' Archangel's signal to dissolve 
The solid Earth, shall find Jehovah's name 
Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears. 
On thy unfathomed page. Each leafy bough. 
That lifts itself within thy proiid domain. 
Doth gather greatness from thy living spray. 
And tremble at the baptism. Lo ! yon birds. 
Do venture boldly near, bathing their wing 
Amid thy foam and mist. — 'Tis meet for them 
To touch thy garment's hem, — or lightly stir 
Tlie snowy leaflets of thy vapour- wreath, — 
Who sport unharmed upon the fleecy cloud. 
And listen at the gates of Heaven, 
AVithout reproof. But, as for us, — it seems 
Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak 
Familiarly of thee. Methinks, to tint 
Thy glorious features with our pencil's point 
Or woo thee to the tablet of a song, 
Were profanation. 



NUMBER OF VISITORS. 161 

Thou dost make the soul 
A wondering^ witness of thy majesty ; 
And while it rushes with delirious joy 
To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its steps, 
And check its rapture, with the humbling view 
Of its own nothingness — bidding it stand 
In the dread presence of th' Invisible, 
As if to answer to its God through thee. 

Hartford, Conn. L. H. SiGOURNEY. 

This will no doubt hereafter become a place of great resort 
for invalids, as the health of such is generally observed to 
improve immediately on coming here. If any place in the 
country is peculiarly propitious for the recovery and preser- 
vation of health, this is the place. 

During the winter months, though there are so many 
visitors, they are generally such as are passing through the 
region on business, and stay only a short time. Frequently 
however, parties from Buffalo, Lockport, Uochester, Canan- 
daigua^ and other places, visit the Falls by sleighing; and 
after spending a day or two, go aAvay enraptured with the 
scene. 

Many visitors err greatly in their calculation in regard to 
the time which they ought to spend here. They come 
hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to view the 
Falls, and then hurry away before they have had time to get 
any very full or distinct impression of the scene, or to visit 
one-fifth of the interesting points, from which the Falls and 
rapids ought to be viewed. The object of the visit is thus 
in a great measure lost. Visitors should make their calcu- 
lations, in the summer especially, to spend at least a week. 

Persons who spend some time at the Falls, will find 
several places in the vicinity, on both sides of the river, 
worthy a special visit. Eleven miles south, on the American 
side, is the village of Tonawanda, from which there is a ferry 
across to White Haven on Grand Island ; proceeding eleven 
miles further, you pass through Black Rock to Buffalo and 



162 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Lake Erie. One mile below the Falls, is Point View, so 
called; one mile fuvtlicr you find the Mineral Spring; one 
mile further the Whirlpool ; half a mile further, the Devil's 
Hole ; eight miles from the Falls, the village of the Tus- 
carora Indians; seven miles, Lewiston village, where the 
steamboats from Lake Ontario receive passengers; seven 
miles below Lewiston is the village of Youngstown, and one 
mile further, Fort Niagara, standing on the border of Lake 
Ontario. 

From the Falls on the Canada side, one mile south brings 
you to the burning spring; two and a half miles to Chippewa 
battle ground and village ; twenty miles through the village 
of Waterloo to Fort Erie near Lake Erie. From the Falls 
north, one mile brings you to Lundy's Lane, where the 
battle of Bridgewater was fought ; three and a half miles to 
the Wliirlpool ; six and a half to Queenston Heights and 
Brock's Monvuuent ; seven miles to Queenston village, oppo- 
site LeAviston ; and fourteen miles to the village of Niagara 
and Fort George. Eight miles from the Falls west, is the 
" Deep Cut," so called, of the Welland Canal, a place much 
visited in the summer. To carry you to any or all these 
places, carriages can always be had at a few moments' notice 
on either side of the river. 



CONCLUSION OF PRESIDENT DVVIGHT'S ACCOUNT. 

. . . " The emotions, excited by the view of this stupen- 
dous scene, are unutterable. When the spectator contem- 
plates the enormous mass of water, pouring from so great 
a height, in sheets so vast, and with a force so amazing; 
when, turning his eye to the flood beneath, he beholds the 
immense convulsion of the mighty mass, and listens to the 
majestic sound which fills the heavens ; his mind is over- 
whelmed by thoughts too great, and by impressions too 
powerful, to permit the current of the intellect to flow with 



DUKE DE LIANCOURT. 163 

serenity. The disturbance of his mind resembles that of the 
waters beneath him. His bosom swells with emotions never 
felt, hi's thoughts labour in a manner never known, before. 
The conceptions are clear and strong, but rapid and tumul- 
tuous. The struggle within is discovered by the fixedness 
of his position, the deep solemnity of his aspect, and the 
intense gaze of his eye. All these impressions are heightened 
by the slowly ascending volumes of mist, rolled and tossed 
into a thousand forms with the varying blast, — and by the 
splendour of the rainbows successively illuminating their 
bosom. At the same time he cannot but reflect that he is 
surveying the most remarkable object on the globe.''^ 



The following singular and fanciful observations are to be 
found in the Duke de Liancourt's account of his visit to the 
Falls in 1795. 

"From a country almost level, a chain of naked rocks 
here rises, upon both sides of the river, which at this point is 
contracted to the width of a single mile ; these are the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, which extend to this point after having 
traversed the continent of North America from Florida upon 
the South. 

" Mons. de Blacons conducted us to a point known, in the 
language of the country, as Table Rock. This is itself part of 
the rock from which the river is precipitated, and we found it 
barely above the level of the river^s bed, and almost within 
its rushing waters ; so that we saw, with entire safety the 
plunge of the torrent into the basin at our feet, and yet 
should have been hurled headlong down the cataract our- 
selves, had we advanced but two paces further ! From this 
position we enjoyed, at the same instant, the august spectacle 
of the foaming waters, as with a deafening roar they 
approached, through the rapids, this astonishing cataract, and 



164 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

of the eddying basin below, in wliicli but an instant after- 
wards, these same waters were ingulfed. It is certainly 
while standing at this point that this wonder of nature should 
be contemplated and studied, if the spectator is to view it 
from only one j but to drink in all its majesty, it is necessary 
to observe it from all, since from whatever position the 
beholder still finds the scene one of confounding and over- 
whelming admiration, bordering upon stupefaction. 

" The Falls of Niagara are comparable to nothing in 
nature. Neither the agreeable, the rude, the romantic, nor 
the beautiful enters into the scene ; but wonder and wild 
astonishment at first sight seizes upon all the faculties, and 
their dominion is constantly strengthened by subsequent and 
profound contemplation of the picture, until the mind is 
finally convinced of its utter inability to convej^ or communi- 
cate the impressions so deeply stamped upon it by this terrific 
sport of nature." 



The following is from the pen of the Rev. Andrew Reed, 
author of that simple, yet beautiful work, " No Fiction ;" and 
is, we think, a most happy efibrt, and by far the best descrip- 
tion we ever met with, embodied in so few words. 

" At length we saw the spray rising through the trees, and 
settling like a white cloud over them ; and then we heard the 
voice of the mighty waters — a voice all its own, and worthy 
of itself. Have you never felt a trembling backwardness to 
look on what you have intensely desired to see ? If not, you 
will hardly understand my feeling. While all were now 
searching for some glance of the object itself, I was disposed to 
turn aside, lest it should surprise me. This no doubt was partly 
caused by the remark I had so often heard, that the first view 
disappoints you. I concluded, that this arose from the first 
view not being a fair one, and I was determined to do justice 



REV. ANDREW REED. 1G5 

to the object of my reverence. In fulfilling this purpose, I 
reached the Pavilion without seeing anything ; disposed of 
my affairs there, and hastened down towai-ds the Falls ; and 
found myself actually on the Table Rock, to receive my first 
impressions. 

" Let any one pursue the same course, and he will not talk 
of first impressions disappointing him ; or if he should, then 
he ought to go twenty miles another Avay ; Niagara was not 
made for him. 

" From the Table Rock I descended to the base. — There I 
clambered out on the broken rocks, and sat — I knoAv not how 
long. The day was the least favourable of any we had. The 
atmosphere was heavy; the foam hung about the object, and 
concealed one half of it ; and the wind blew from the opposite 
side, and brought the spray upon you so as to wet you exceed- 
ingly. The use of cloak or umbrella was troublesome ; you 
could not wholly forget your person, and think only of one 
thing. However, had I not seen it in this state of the atmos- 
phere I should have wanted some views which now occupy 
my imagination. The whole is exceedingly solemn when 
nature frowns ; and when much is hidden, while yet the eye 
has not marked the outline, there is a mysteriousuess spread 
over the object which suits your conception of its greatness, 
and in which the imagination loves to luxuriate. I can 
scarcely define to you my impressions on this first day ; I can 
scarcely define them to myself. I was certainly not disap- 
pointed ; but I was confounded. I felt as though I had 
received a shock, and required time to right myself again. 

" I returned to the Pavilion, which is about half a mile from 
the Falls, and retired to my chamber, which overlooked them. 
I mused on what I had seen, and was still confounded. I 
sought rest, that I might be fresh for the morrow ; but rest 
did not come so freely. The continuous deep sounds of the 
waters would have sung me to sleep, but the tremor of the 
house and ground, which shook the window like those of a 
stage-coach, kept me wakeful ; and wheu I fell into slumbers. 



166 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

the flitting dreams of what I had seen wouhl trouble and 
break them. 

" Notwithstanding all disturbances, I rose on the next 
morning in good spirits. The day was all that could be 
wished. The sun shining, the heavens transparent, garnished 
with bright and peaceful clouds. The wind, too, was gentle 
and refreshing ; and had shifted to our side, so as to promise 
the nearest points of sight without the discomfort of getting 
wet through. 

" I now look fairly on the scene as it presented itself at 
my window, in the fair lights of the morning. It is composed 
rather of the accompaniments of the Fall than of the Fall 
itself. You look up the river full ten miles, and it runs in 
this part from two to three miles in breadth. Here, it has 
formed in its passage beautiful little bays ; and there, it has 
worked through the slips of main-land, putting out the frag- 
ments as so many islets to decorate its surface; while, on 
either hand, it is bounded by the original forests of pine. At 
the upper extremity you see the blue waters calmly resting 
under the more cerulean heavens ; while nearer to you it 
becomes agitated, like a strong man preparing to run a race. 
It swells, and foams, and recoils, as though it were committed 
to some desperate issue; and then suddenly contracts its 
dimensions, as if to gather up all its power for the mighty 
leap it is about to make. This is all you see here ; and it is 
enough. 

" I left the hotel, and went down to the Table Rock ; this 
is usually deemed the great point of sight, and for an upper 
view it undoubtedly is. It is composed of several ledges of 
rocks, having different advantages, and projecting as far over 
the gulf below as they can to be safe. But how shall I 
describe the objects before me ! The mysterious veil which 
lay heavily yesterday on a large part of it, was now removed, 
and the outine of the picture was mostly seen. An ordinary 
picture -would have suffered by this ; but here the real dimen- 
sions are so vast, and so far beyond what the eye has 



REV, ANDREW REED. 107 

measured, that to see them is not to fetter, but to assist the 
imagination. This Fall, which is called the Horse- Shoe Fall, 
is upwards of two thousand feet in extent, and makes a leap, 
on an average, of about 160 feet. Now, just enlarge your con- 
ceptions to these surprising dimensions, and suppose yourself 
to be recumbent on the projecting rock which I have named, 
as near the verge as you dare, and I will assist you to look at 
the objects as they present themselves. 

" You see not now above the cataract the bed of the river, 
but you still see the foaming heads of the rapids, like waves 
of the ocean, hurrying to the precipice ; and over them the 
light clouds which float on the horizon. — Then comes the 
chute itself. It is not in the form of the Horse-Shoe; it is 
not composed of either circular or straight lines; but it 
partakes of both ; and throughout it is marked by projec- 
tions and indentations, which give an amazing variety of 
form and aspect. With all this variety it is one. It has all 
the power which is derived from unity, and none of the 
stiffness which belongs to uniformity. There it falls in one 
dense awful mass of green waters, unbroken and resistless . 
here it is broken into drops, and falls hke a sea of diamonds 
sparkling in the sun. Now, it shoots forth like rockets in 
endless succession; and now, it is so light and foaming that 
it dances in the sun as it goes ; and before it has reached the 
pool, it is driven up again by the ascending currents of air. 
Then there is the deep expanding pool below. — Where the 
waters pitch, all is agitation and foam, so that the foot of the 
Fall is never seen ; and beyond it and away, the waters spread 
themselves out like a rippling sea of hquid alabaster. This 
last feature is perfectly unique, and you would think 
nothing could add to its exquisite loveliness ; but there lies 
on it, as if they were made for each other, " heaven's own 
bow." Oh, never had it, in heaven itself, so fair a resting- 
place ! 

" Besides, by reason of the different degrees of rarity in 
the waters and the atmosphere, the sun is pervading the 
whole scene with unwonted lights and hues. And the foam 



168 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

"which is flying off" in all directions, is insensibly condensed, 
and forms a pillar of cloud, which moves over the scene, as it 
once did over the tents of Israel, and apparently by the same 
bidding, giving amazing variety, sublimity, and unearthliness 
to the picture. Then there is sound as well as sight ; but 
what sound ! it is not like the sea ; nor like the thunder ; 
nor like anything I have heard. There is no roar, no rattle; 
nothing sharp or angry in its tones ; it is deep, awful, one ! 

" Well, as soon as I could disengage myself from this spot, 
I descended to the bed of the Fall. I am never satisfied with 
any Fall till I have availed myself of the very lowest stand- 
ing it supplies : it is there usually that you become suscep- 
tible of its utmost power. I scrambled, therefore, over the 
dislocated rocks, and put myself as near as possible to 
the object which I wished to absorb me. I was not dis- 
appointed. 

" There were now fewer objects in the picture, but what 
you saw had greater prominence and power over you. Every- 
thing ordinary — foliage, trees, hills — was shut out ; the 
smaller attributes of the Fall were also excluded ; and I was 
left alone with its own greatness. At my feet the waters 
were creaming, swelling, and dashing away, as if in terror, 
from the scene of conflict, at the rate of twenty miles an 
hour. Above and overhanging me was the Table Rock, with 
its majestic form, and dark and livid colours, threatening to 
crush one. While immediately before me was spread in all 
its height and majesty — not in parts, but as a whole, beyond 
what the eye could embrace — the unspeakable cataract itself : 
with its head now touching the horizon, and seeming to fall 
direct from heaven, and rushing to the earth with a weight 
and voice which made the rocks beneath and around me 
fearfully to tremble. Over this scene the cloud of foam 
mj'steriously moved, rising upward, so as to spread itself 
partly on the face of the Fall, and partly on the face of the 
sky : while over all were seen the beautiful and soft colours 
of the rainbow, forming almost an entire circle, and crowning 
it with celestial glory. But it is in vain. The power, the 



REV. ANDREW REED. 169 

sublimity, the beautj', tlie bliss of that spot, of that hour — 
it cannot be told. 

" When fairly exhausted by intensity of feeling, I strolled 
away towards the ferry, to pass over to the American side. 
The Falls here, from the distance, have a plain and uniform 
aspect : but this wholly disappears on approaching them. 
They are exceedingly fine. They do not subdue you as on 
the Canada side ; but they fill you with a solemn and delight- 
ful sense of their grandeur and beauty. The character of 
the one is beautiful, inclining to the sublime ; and that of 
the other, the sublime, inclining to the beautiful. There is 
a single slip of the Fall on this side, which, in any other 
situation, would be regarded as a most noble cataract. It 
falls nearly 200 feet ; it is full twenty feet wide at the point 
of fall, and spreads itself like a fan in falling, so as to strike 
on a line of some fifty or sixty feet. It has great power and 
beauty. 

" I found that there was a small ledge of rock behind this 
Fall, and ventured on it to about the centre. You can stand 
here without getting at all wet ; the waters shoot out several 
feet before you ; and, if you have nerve, it is entirely safe. 
I need not say that the noveltj^ and beautj^ of the situation 
amply reward you. You are behind the sheet of water, and 
the sun is shining on its face, illuminating the wdiole body 
with a variety proportioned to its density. Here, before you, 
the heavy waters fall in unbroken columns of bright green. 
There, they flow down like a shower of massy crystals, radiant 
with light, and emitting as they fall all the prismatic colours ; 
while there, again, they are so broken and divided as to 
resemble a shower of gems sparkling in the light, and shoot- 
ing across the blue heavens. 

" I passed by what is called Goat Island to the extremity 
of the Horse-Shoe Fall on this side. There is carried out 
over the head of this Fall a limb of timber, with a hand-rail 
to it. It projects some twelve feet over the abyss, and is 
meant to suppl}^ the place of the Table Rock on the other 
side. It does so in a great measure ; and as, while it is quite 



170 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

as safe, it gives you far less sense of safety, it disposes you 
the more to sympathize with objects of terror. Indeed, when 
you fairly get to the extremity, and find yourself standing 
out in this world of waters on a slip of wood only large 
enough for your feet to rest on, and which is quivering 
beneath you ; when the waters are rushing down under you ; 
when the spray is flying over you ; and when the eye seeks 
to fathom the unfathomable and boisterous gulf below ; you 
have, perhaps, as much of the terrible as will consist with 
gratification. Very many of the visitors never think of 
encountering this point of view ; those who do, and have 
a taste for it, will never forget it. It is among the finest 
of the fine. 

" In returning, I wandered round the little island. It is 
covered with forest trees of a fine growth, and is full of pic- 
turesque beauty. Days might be spent here in happy and 
deep seclusion : — protected from the burning sun ; regaled by 
lovely scenes of nature, and the music of the sweetest Avaters; 
and in fellowship, at will, with the mighty Falls. 

" The next morning was the last ; and it was given wholly 
to the Great Fall. I prepared, in the first instance, to go 
behind it. This is the chief adventure ; and is by most 
writers described as dangerous. There is no danger if the 
overhanging rocks keep their places, and if you have moderate 
self-possession. I made use of the oil-cloth dress provided 
by the guide, and was quarrelling with it as damp and 
uncomfortable; but that grievance was quickly disposed of, 
I had not made my entrance behind the scenes before I was 
drenched, and the less I had on the better. However, it was 
an admirable shower-bath ; and there was an end to the 
question of wet or dry. " Take care of your breath," was 
the cry of the guide ; and I had need, for it was almost gone. 
On making a further advance, I recovered it, and felt 
relieved. " Now give me your hand," said the guide ; " this 
is the narrowest part." Onward I went, till he assured me 
that I was on Termination Rock : the extreme point acces- 
sible to the foot of man. 



IIEV. ANDREW KEED. 171 

" As the labour of the feet was over, and there was good 
standing, I determined on making the best use of my eyes* 
But this was not so easy to do. The spray and waters were 
driving in my face, and coursing down my sides most 
strangely: a strong wind from the foot of the Fall was 
driving in the opposite direction, so as to threaten not to 
blow me down, but to blow me up to the roof of the vault. 
However, I soon ascertained that we were at the extremity 
of a cavern of a large and wonderful construction. It is in 
the form of a pointed arch ; the one span composed of rolling 
and dense water, and the other of livid-black rocks. It was 
some fifty feet from the foot of the rock to that of the water, 
and I had entered about seventy feet. On the entrance, 
which is mostly of thinner waters, the sun played cheerfully, 
and with glowing power ; but within, it was contrasted by 
the dim light and heavy obscurity which are generated by 
the density of the fall, to which the whole power of the sun 
can give only a semi-transparency. What with this visible 
gloom, the stunning noise of the Fall, and the endless com- 
motion of wind and waters, the effect is most singular and 
awful. It is a scene that would harmonize with the creations 
of Fuseli; and it has, I will venture to say, real horrors 
beyond what the cave of old ^olus ever knew. 

" On returning to my dressing-room, I received a cer- 
tificate from the guide that I had really been to Termina- 
tion Rock ; an ingenious device to give importance to his 
vocation, but in the success of which he does not miscal- 
culate on human nature. The rest of the morning was 
employed in taking peeps at the Falls from favourite points 
of observation ; but chiefly from the Table Rock, and at the 
foot of the Great Falls. The day was exceedingly fine, and 
every feature of the amazing scene was lighted up with all its 
beauty ; and I now communed with it as one would Avith 
a friend who has already afforded you rich enjoyment in his 
society. I was delighted — was fascinated. Everything, apart 
or together, seemed to have acquired greater power and 
expression. I studied all the parts; they were exquisite. 



173 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

lovely, noble ; I put them all together, and it overwhelmed 
me, subdued me, fixed me to the spot. Long I stayed; but 
all time was short. I went, and returned; and knew not 
how to jro." 



DISTANCES. 

From Steamboat Landing across to Chippewa .... Miles 2^ 

From Fort Schlosser to Chippewa, „ 1^ 

From the Falls to Chippewa „ 2 

Across the River at the Falls, „ | 

To Goat Island by the Bridge, Rods 58 

Across the Falls on the American side, „ 56 

Across the foot of Goat Island, „ 80 

Length of Goat Island, „ 160 

Across the Horse-Shoe Fall, „ 114 

From the Eagle and Cataract Hotels to Table Rock, Miles li- 
From the above Hotels to the top of the bank,. . . . Rods 100 
Top of the bank down the Staircase to the River. . „ 28 

Width of river at the Ferry, „ 76 

Up the Canada bank, „ 76 

From the Falls to the Mineral Springs, Miles 3 

To the Whirlpool, „ 3 

To the Devil's Hole, „ 3i 

To Erie Canal at Tonawanda, „ 11 

To Buffalo, „ 22 

To Lockport, „ 18 

To Lewiston, „ 7 

Depth of water at the Horse-Shoe, Feet 20 

Depth of water at the Feri'v, „ 250 



IA€AIRA MIYEM. 

aRd 
FARTS ^4UJACENT- 




£.'.\/un, j-c.^ 



174, e^^^'"" ^.c"^' 



ADDRESS TO THE NIAGARA RIVER. 



rr^.^^■i 



(From tlio Spanish of Jose Maria Hereclia.) — United States Review, and Liter ury 

Gazette. 

Tremendous Torrent ! for an instant liush 

The terrors of tliy voice, and cast aside 

Those wide-involving shadovrs ; that mine eyes 

INIay see the fearful beauty of thy face. 

I am not all-unworthj^ of thy sight ; 

For, from my very boyhood, have I loved, — 

Shunning the meaner track of common minds, — 

To look on nature in her loftier moods. 

At the fierce rushing of the hurricane, 

At the near bursting of the thunderbolt, 

I have been toucliM with joy; and when the scfi, 

Lash'd by the wind, hath rock'd my bark, and showed 

Its yawning caves beneath me, I have loved 

Its dangers, and the wrath of elements. 

Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy waves 

Grow broken midst the rocks ; thy current, then. 

Shoots onward, like the irresistible course 

Of destiny. How terribly they rage, — 

The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there ! My brain 

Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze 

Upon the hurrying waters ; and my sight 

Vainly would follow, as toward the verge 

Sweeps the wide torrent : waves innumerable 

Meet there and madden ; waves innumerable 

Urge on and overtake the waves before. 

And disappear in thunder and in foam. 

They reach, they leap, the barrier; the abyss 

Swallows, insatiable, the sinking waves ; 

A thousand rainbows arch them, and the woods 

Are deafened with the roar. The violent shock 

Shatters to vapour the descending sheets ; 

A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and bears 

The mighty pyramid of circling mist 

To heaven. The solitary hunter, near. 

Pauses with terror, in the forest shade. 



ADDRESS TO THE NIAGARA RIVER. 175 

God of all truth ! in other lands, I've seen 

Lying philosophers, blaspheming men, 

Questioners of thy mysteries, that draw 

Their fellows deep into impiety ; 

And therefore doth my spirit seek thy face 

In earth's majestic solitude. Even here 

My heart doth open all itself to Thee : 

In this immensity of loneliness, 

I feel thy hand upon me. To my ear 

The eternal thunder of the cataract brings 

Thy voice, and I am humbled as I hear. 

Dread torrent ! that with wonder and with fear. 
Dost overwhelm the soul of him that looks 
Upon thee, and dost bear it from itself : 
Whence hast thou thy beginning ? Who supplies. 
Age after age, thy unexhausted springs ? 
What power hath order'd, that, when all thy weight 
Descends into the deep, the swollen waves 
Rise not, and roll to overwhelm the earth ? 

The Lord hath open'd his omnipotent hand. 
Covered thy face with clouds, and given his voice 
To thy down-rushing waters ; he hath girt 
Thy terrible forehead with his radiant bow. 
I see thy never-resting waters run. 
And I bethink me how the tide of time 
Sweeps to Eternity. So pass, of man — 
Pass like a noon-day dream — the blooming days, 
And he awakes to sorrow 

Hear, dread Niagara ! my latest voice ! — 
Yet a few years, and the cold earth shall close 
Over the brow of him who sings thee now 
Thus failingly. Would that this my humble verse 
Might be, like thee, immortal ! I, meanwhile, 
Cheerfully passing to the appointed rest. 
Might raise my radiant forehead in the clouds 
To listen to the echoes of my fame. 



176 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

HYMN ON NIAGARA.— BY THOMAS GRINFIELD, M.A. 

" Where Niagara stuus with thundering sound." 

Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village.' 

An antliem, ' like the sound of many waters V 
The prophet heard it, as in wondrous vision 
He lay intranced upon the cliffs of Patmos ; 
And wouldst thou hear its emblem, go and listen, 
In deep and dread delight, to Niagara ! 
That everlasting anthem which hath peal'd, 
Nor paus'd a moment, from the birth of ages ! 
And, fitting emblem of celestial chorus. 
The loud eternity of rushing music 
Disturbs not, but subdues and fills, the spirit 
With feelings of unutterable stillness,* 
And infinite tranquillit}^ excluding 
The world with all its dissonance of passions. 

There, too, a cloud of ever-offer'd incense 
From nature's altar, — in the vapoury column 
On which bright rainbows beam the smiles of mercy, — 
Hath risen well-nigh six thousand years to heaven. 
In unison with that astounding chorus 
Of multitudinous and white-robed waters. 
So glorious in the fury of their rapture 
Around their awful and mysterious centre ! 

And oft, stupendous Cataract, as winter 
Comes listening to thy choral hallelujahs. 
And gazing on thy pomp of rising incense ; 
With mimic semblance of some mighty temple 
He loves to grace thee, and thy shaggy borders 
Fantastically silvers o'er with frost-work ; 
Pranking with icy pinnacles and pillars 
The walls of thy magnificent Cathedral :t 
But ne'er Cathedral own'd a crypt so dreadful 
As thine, o'er-arch'd with such a thundering deluge. 
* Charles Dickens records this impression, 
t Mrs. Jameson describes its weighty magnificence. 



I 



THE GENIUS OF NIAGARA. 177 

And still the thunder of the eternal anthem, 
And still the column of ascending incense. 
Shall draw remotest pilgrims to thy worship. 
Shall hold them breathless in thy sovereign presence, 
And lost to all that they before had looked on j 
Yea, conjiu''d up by strong imagination, 
Shall sound in ears that never heard the music, 
Shall gleam in eyes that ne'er beheld the vision ; 
Till the great globe, with all that it inherits. 
Shall vanish, — like that cloud of ceaseless incense, — 
In thunder, — like that falling world of waters. 

Oh pearless paragon of earthly wonders ! 
Embodying, in their most intense expression. 
Beauty, sublimity, might, music, motion. 
To fix and fill at once eye, ear, thought, feeling ; 
And kindling, into unknown exaltation. 
Dread and delight, astonishment and rapture ! 
Sure God said, let there be a Niagara ! 
And, lo, a Niagara heard His bidding ; 
And glimmer'd forth a sparkle of His glory. 
And whispered here the thunder of Omnipotence ! 

Clifton, April, 1839. 



THE GENIUS OF NIAGARA. 

BY THE REV. JOHN C. LORD, D.D. 

Proud demon of the waters — thou 
Around whose stern and stormy brow 
Circles the rainbow's varied gem 
The Vapour- Spirit's diadem — 
While rushing headlong at thy feet. 
The everlasting thunders meet. 

Thronged on the mists, around thy form 
Is dashing an eternal storm. 



178 ' DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 

Whose ceaseless, changeless earthquake-shock 
The tempests of Old Ocean mock. 
And the dark Sea King yields to thee, 
The meed of might and majesty. 

Depth, sound, immensity, have lent 
Their terrors to thy element ; 
Thy congregated waters yell 
Down caverns fathomless as hell. 
While Heaven's glorious hues are set 
About thy gorgeous coronet. 

Titanic Winter strives in vain 
To bind thee in his icy chain. 
Which rent by thy resistless wave 
Finds in thy fearful depths — a grave; 
Or the torn fragments glistening lie 
In the glare of thy kingly eye. 

A silvery web among thy trees, 
Unruffled by the passing breeze. 
The vanquished Ice-King for thee weaves. 
And gives them gems for winter leaves. 
And rears thee columns, bright and vast, 
Their radiance through thy halls to cast. 

The Giant Time hath never yet 
His footsteps in thy waters set ; 
Grimly passing this Fall, he tries 
To watch his by-gone centuries 
Along the dark and devious track 
Of this rock-crashing-cataract. 

Emblem of power — the mighty sun 
Hath found and left thee roaring on, 
Thou wert with Chaos, ere his light 
Shone out upon the starless night. 
Sole relic of that awful day 
When all in wild confusion lay. 



FAREWELL TO NIAGARA. IJiJ 

And when our earth, and sea, and sky 
Formless again together lie — 
When judgment-fires are kindling o'er, 
Old Nature's wreck — Niagara's roar 
First echo in the ear of Time, 
Shall sing his requiem sublime. 

— The last leap of thy waves shall be 
The sign of his death-agony. 



FAREWELL TO NIAGARA. 

BY MBS. SIGOURNEY. 

My spirit grieves to say. Farewell to thee, 
Oh beautiful and glorious ! 

Thou dost robe 
Thyself in mantle of the coloured mist. 
Most lightly tinged, and exquisite as thought. 
Decking thy forehead with a crown of gems 
Woven by God's right hand. 

Hadst thou but wrapped 
Thy brow in clouds, and swept the blinding mist 
In showers upon us, it had been less hard 
To part from thee. But there thou art, sublime 
In noon-day splendour, gathering all thy rays 
Unto their climax, green, and fleecy white. 
And changeful tincture, for which words of man 
Have neither sign nor sound, until to breathe 
Farewell is agony. For we have roamed 
Beside thee, at our will, and drawn thy voice 
Into our secret soul, and felt how good 
Thus to be here, until we half implored. 
While long in wildering ecstasy we gazed. 
To build us tabernacles, and behold 
Always thy majesty. 




1 

180 DESCRIPTIONS OF NIAGARA. 



Fain would we dwell 
Here at thy feet, and be tliy worshipper. 
And from the Aveariness and dust of earth 
Steal evermore away. Yea, were it not 
That many a care doth bind us here below, 
And in each care, a duty, like a flower. 
Thorn-hedged, perchance, yet fed with dews of heaven. 
And in each duty, an enclosed joy, 
Which like a honey-searching bee doth sing, — 
And were it not, that ever in our path 
Spring up our planted seeds of love and grief. 
Which we must watch, and bring their perfect fruit 
Into ovir Master's garner, it were sweet 
To linger here, and be thy worshipper. 
Until death's footstep broke this dream of life. 



THE END. 



LONDON: FISHER, SON, AND CO., PRINTERS 



I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





0014 108 1974 



